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IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

VOL.  I. 


"THE  GOLDEN  CLOUDS  CURTAINED  THE  DEEP  WHERE  IT  LAY, 
AND  IT  LOOKED  LIKE  AN  EDEN  AWAY,  FAR  AWAY." 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

ARCTIC  EXPLORATION  IN  EARLY  TIMES 

BY 

FRIDTJOF   NANSEN 

G.C.V.O.,  D.Sc,  D.C.L.,  Ph.D. 
Professor  of  Oceanography  in  the  University 
of  Christiania,  Etc. 

AUTHOR  OF  "FARTHEST  NORTH" 

TRANSLATED  BY  ARTHUR  G.  CHATER 

2.11  N 
IN  TWO  VOLUMES 

WITH    FRONTISPIECES   IN    COLOR,   AND    OVER   ONE 

HUNDRED  AND    FIFTY   ILLUSTRATIONS 

IN   BLACK-AND-WHITE 


VOL.  I. 


"■■•'  ;..'••■•••'  :'':'' 

•      • 

P          »          •            •#      • 
.ti    »»■•■•*     *       * 

NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK 

A. 

STOKES 
1911 

COMPANY 

S\7l| 


Copyright,  JQII,  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company 


Alt  rights  reser'ved,  including  that   of  translation  into  foreign 
languages,  including  the  Scandtna'vian 


Nonjember,  igii 


H  1^ 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  owes  its  existence  in  the  first  instance  to  a 
rash  promise  made  some  years  ago  to  my  friend. 
Dr.  J.  Scott  Keltie,  of  London,  that  I  would  try,  when  time 
permitted,  to  contribute  a  volume  on  the  history  of  arctic  voy- 
ages to  his  series  of  books  on  geographical  exploration.  The 
subject  was  an  attractive  one;  I  thought  I  was  fairly  familiar 
with  it,  and  did  not  expect  the  book  to  take  a  very  long  time 
when  once  I  made  a  start  with  it.  On  account  of  other  studies 
it  was  a  long  while  before  I  could  do  this;  but  when  at  last  I 
seriously  took  the  work  in  hand,  the  subject,  in  return,  monopo- 
lized my  whole  powers. 

It  appeared  to  me  that  the  natural  foundation  for  a  history 
of  arctic  voyages  was,  in  the  first  place,  to  make  clear  the  main 
features  in  the  development  of  knowledge  of  the  North  in  early 
times.  By  tracing  how  ideas  of  the  Northern  world,  appear- 
ing first  in  a  dim  twilight,  change  from  age  to  age,  how  the 
old  myths  and  creations  of  the  imagination  are  constantly 
recurring,  sometimes  in  new  shapes,  and  how  new  ones  are 
added  to  them,  we  have  a  curious  insight  into  the  working  of  the 
human  mind  in  its  endeavor  to  subject  to  itself  the  world  and 
the  universe. 

But  as  I  went  deeper  into  the  subject  I  became  aware  that 
the  task  was  far  greater  than  I  had  supposed.  I  found  that 
much  that  had  previously  been  written  about  it  was  not  to  be 
depended  upon;  that  frequently  one  author  had  copied  another, 
and  that  errors  and  opinions  which  had  once  gained  admission 
remained  embedded  in  the  literary  tradition.  What  had  to  be 
done  was  to  confine  one's  self  to  the  actual  sources,  and  as  far 
as  possible  to  build  up  independently  the  best  possible  struc- 
ture from  the  very  foundation.     But  the   more  extensive  my 

vii 


PREFACE 

studies  became,  the  more  riddles  I  perceived — riddle  after 
riddle  led  to  new  riddles,  and  this  drew  me  on  farther  and 
farther. 

On  many  points  I  arrived  at  views  which  to  some  extent 
conflicted  with  those  previously  held.  This  made  it  necessary 
to  give,  not  merely  the  bare  results,  but  also  a  great  part  of  the 
investigations  themselves.  I  have  followed  the  words  of 
Niebuhr,  which  P.  A,  Munch  took  as  a  motto  for  "  Det  norske 
Folks  Historic": 

"  Ich  werde  suchen  die  Kritik  der  Geschichte  nicht  nach 
dunkeln  Gefiihlen,  sondern  forschend,  auszufiihren,  nicht  ihre 
Resultate,  welche  nur  blinde  Meinungen  stiften,  sondern  die 
Untersuchungen  selbst  in  ihrem  ganzen  Umfange  vortragen." 

But  in  this  way  my  book  has  become  something  quite  differ- 
ent from  what  was  intended,  and  far  larger.  I  have  not  reached 
the  history  of  arctic  voyages  proper. 

Many  may  think  that  too  much  has  been  included  here,  and 
yet  what  it  has  been  possible  to  mention  here  is  but  an  infinitesi- 
mal part  of  the  mighty  labor  in  vanished  times  that  makes  up 
our  knowledge  of  the  North.  The  majority  of  the  voyages,  and 
those  the  most  important,  on  which  the  first  knowledge  was 
based,  have  left  no  certain  record;  the  greatest  steps  have  been 
taken  by  unknown  pioneers,  and  if  a  halo  has  settled  upon  a 
name  here  and  there,  it  is  the  halo  of  legend. 

My  investigations  have  made  it  necessary  to  go  through  a 
great  mass  of  literature,  for  which  I  lacked,  in  part,  the  linguis- 
tic qualifications.  For  the  study  of  classical,  and  of  mediaeval 
Latin  literature,  I  found  in  Mr.  Amund  Sommerfeldt  a  most  able 
assistant,  and  most  of  the  translations  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors 
are  due  to  him.  By  his  sound  and  sober  criticism  of  the  often 
difficult  original  texts  he  was  of  great  help  to  me. 

In  the  study  of  Arabic  literature  Professor  Alexander  Seippel 
has  afforded  me  excellent  help,  combined  with  interest  in  the 
subject,  and  he  has  translated  for  me  the  statements  of  Arab 
authors  about  the  North. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  work,  as  so  often  before,  I  owe  a 
viii 


PREFACE 

deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  my  old  friend,  Professor  Moltke  Moe. 
He  has  followed  my  studies  from  the  very  beginning  with  an 
interest  that  was  highly  stimulating;  with  his  extensive  knowl- 
edge in  many  fields  bordering  on  those  studies  he  has  helped  me 
by  word  and  deed,  even  more  often  than  appears  in  the 
course  of  the  book.  His  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  whole 
world  of  myth  has  been  of  great  importance  to  the  work  in  many 
ways;  I  will  mention  in  particular  his  large  share  in  the  attempt 
at  unraveling  the  difficult  question  of  Wineland  and  the  Wine- 
land  voyages.  Here  his  concurrence  was  the  more  valuable  to 
me  since  at  first  he  disagreed  with  the  conclusions  and  views  at 
which  I  had  arrived;  but  the  constantly  increasing  mass  of  evi- 
dence, which  he  himself  helped  in  great  measure  to  collect,  con- 
vinced him  of  their  justice,  and  I  have  the  hope  that  the  inquiry, 
particularly  as  regards  this  subject,  will  prove  to  be  of  value  to 
future  historical  research. 

With  his  masterly  knowledge  and  insight,  Professor  Alf  Torp 
has  given  me  sound  support  and  advice,  especially  in  difficult 
linguistic  and  etymological  questions.  Many  others,  whose 
names  are  mentioned  in  the  course  of  the  book,  have  also  given 
me  valuable  assistance. 

I  owe  special  thanks  to  Dr.  Axel  Anthon  Bjombo,  librarian 
of  the  Royal  Library  of  Copenhagen,  for  his  willing  collabora- 
tion, which  has  been  of  great  value  to  me.  While  these 
investigations  of  mine  were  in  progress,  he  has  been  occupied 
in  the  preparation  of  his  exhaustive  and  excellent  work  on  the 
older  cartography  of  Greenland.  At  his  suggestion  we  have 
exchanged  our  manuscripts,  and  have  mutually  criticized  each 
other's  views  according  to  our  best  ability;  the  book  will  show 
that  this  has  been  productive  in  many  ways.  Dr.  Bjombo  has 
also  assisted  me  in  another  way:  I  have,  for  instance,  ob- 
tained copies  of  several  old  maps  through  him.  He  has, 
besides,  sent  me  photographs  of  vignettes  and  marginal  drawings 
from  ancient  Icelandic  and  Norwegian  MSS.  in  the  Library  of 
Copenhagen. 

Mr.  K.  Eriksen  has  drawn  the  greater  part  of  the  reproduc- 

ix 


PREFACE 

tions  of  the  vignettes  and  the  old  maps;  other  illustrations  are 
drawn  by  me.  In  the  reproduction  of  the  maps  it  has  been 
sought  rather  to  bring  before  the  reader  in  a  clear  form  the  re- 
sults to  which  my  studies  have  led  than  to  produce  detailed 
facsimiles  of  the  originals. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  thank  Mr.  Arthur  G.  Chater  for  the 
careful  and  intelligent  way  in  which  he  has  executed  the  English 
translation.  In  reading  the  English  proofs  I  have  taken  the 
opportunity  of  making  a  number  of  corrections  and  additions  to 
the  original  text. 

FRIDTJOF  NANSEN 

Lysaker,  August,  191 1 


CONTENTS  OF    VOL.  I. 

PAGE 

Introduction i 

CHAPTER  I 

ANTIQUITY.  Before  Pytheas 7 

Origin  of  the  word  Arctic — CEcumene  and  Oceanus — Herodotus  on 
the  ocean — Division  of  the  ocean — Homeric  ideas  of  the  universe — 
Spherical  form  of  the  earth — Doctrine  of  zones — The  abyss — The 
Rhipaean  Mountains — Laestrygons  and  Cimmerians — The  Hyperbo- 
reans— Trade  routes  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  North — 
Tin  in  antiquity — Amber  in  ancient  times — Voyages  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians— Himlico's  voyage,  500  B.C. 

CHAPTER  II 

Pytheas  of  Massalia-The  Voyage  to  Thule 43 

Personal  circumstances  and  date  of  the  voyage — Astronomical  meas- 
urements— Pytheas's  ship — The  voyage  northward — Britain — Astro- 
nomical measurements  in  Britain — Thule — Thule  is  not  Shetland — 
Thule  is  not  Iceland — Thule  is  Norway — The  inhabitants  of  the 
northern  regions — Length  of  the  voyage — The  sea  beyond  Thule — 
The  voyage  along  the  coast  of  Germany — Abalus  and  Balcia — Im- 
portance of  Pytheas. 

CHAPTER  III 

ANTIQUITY.   AFTER  PYTHEAS 74 

Eratosthenes,  circa  200  B.C. — Hipparchus,  igo-125  B.C. — Polybius, 
204-127  B.C. — Crates  of  Mallus,  150  B.C. — Posidonius,  135-151  B.C. — 
Caesar,  55-45  B.C. — Strabo,  Christian  era — Augustus,  5  A.D. — Mela, 
circa  43  A.D. — Codanus — Codanovia — Voyage  to  Samland,  circa  60 
A.D. — Pliny,  23-70  A.D. — Scandinavia — Agricola,  84  A.D. — Tacitus, 
98  A.D. — Dionysius  Periegetes,  11 7-138  A.D. — Marinus  of  Tyre — 
Ptolemy,  circa  150  A.D. — Solinus,  third  century — Avienus,  circa  370 
A.D. — Macrobius,  Orosius,  Capella,  etc. — Itineraries. 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Early  Middle  Ages las 

Cosmas  Indico-pleustes,  sixth  century — Cassiodorus,  468-570  A.D.— 
Jordanes,   circa    552 — Screrefennae    or    Skridiinns — Adogit — Impossi- 

xi 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
bility  of  forty  days*  daylight  in  summer  and  night  in  winter — North- 
em  tribal  names — Procopius,  circa  552  A.D. — Erulian  sources  of 
Procopius — Common  source  of  Procopius  and  Jordanes — The  Eruli 
are  Norsemen — Skridfinns — Isidorus  Hispalensis,  before  636  A.D. — 
Bede,  673-735 — The  Ravenna  geographer,  seventh  century — iEthicus 
Istricus,  seventh  century  (?) — Paulus  Warnefridi,  720-790 — Interpola- 
tion in  Solinus,  circa  eighth  century — Dicuil,  circa  825 — Discovery  of 
the  Faroes  by  the  Irish — Irish  discovery  of  Iceland — Einhardt, 
ninth  century — Hrabanus  Maurus — Rimbertus. 

CHAPTER  V 

The  awakening  of  Medieval  Knowledge  of  the  North  .     .     .    168 

King  Alfred,  849-901 — Ottar's  voyage  to  the  White  Sea,  ninth  cen- 
tury— Norwegian  whaling — Ottar's  voyage  to  South  Norway  and 
Schleswig — Meregarto,  eleventh  century — Adam  of  Bremen,  circa 
1070 — The  Land  of  Women — Cynocephali — Nortmanni  or  Hyperbo- 
reans— Finns  and  Skridfinns — Nortmannia  or  Nordvegia — The 
Western  Ocean — The  Orkneys — Thule  of  Iceland — Greenland — 
Halogaland — Winland — Frisian  expedition  to  the  North  Pole — Wine- 
land — Conception  of  the  earth  and  the  ocean. 

CHAPTER  VI 

Finns,    Skridfinns    (Lapps),    and   the    First    Settlement    of 

Scandinavia 203 

Earliest  mention  of  the  Finns — The  name  "Finn" — Immigration  to 
Scandinavia — Southern  Finns  in  Scandinavia — Northern  "  Finns  "  in 
Finmark — Archaeological    relics    of    "  Finns  "    in    Varanger — Ottar's 
"  Finns  " — Ancient     Lappish     skulls — Place-names     of     the    Lapps —  \ 
Conclusions   as  to   the   origin   of   the   Northern  "  Finns "— "  Fishing  T~' 
Lapps  "  and  "  Reindeer  Lapps  " — Decline  of  hunting. 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Voyages  of  the  Norsemen;  Discovery  of  Iceland  and 

Greenland       233 

Shipbuilding — The  first  Viking  Expedition— Earliest  navigation  of 
the  Scandinavians — The  Ships  of  the  rock-carvings — The  earliest 
boats  of  Northern  Europe — Shipbuilding  in  Norway — The  Norwe- 
gians* appliances  for  navigation — The  Norwegian  Settlement  in  Ice- 
land— Oldest  Authorities — Are  Frode  on  the  settlement  of  Iceland — 
Tjodrik  Monk  on  the  discovery  of  Iceland — "  Historia  Norvegiae  " — 
The  Landnama  on  the  discovery  of  Iceland — The  Discovery  and  Set- 
tlement of  Greenland  by  the  Norwegians — Oldest  Authority  on 
Greenland — Are  Frode,  circa  11 20 — Gunnbjorn  Ulfsson — Snaebjorn 
Galti  and  Rolf  of  Raudesand— Eric  the  Red— The  Western  Settle- 

xii 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ment — Population — Bishops — Norse  literature  in  Greenland — Ruins 
—Food— Life  and  conditions. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Voyages  to  the   Uninhabited   Parts  of   Greenland  in  the 

Middle  Ages 279 

The  East  Coast  of  Greenland — Drift-ice — ^Thorgils  Orrabeinsfostre — 
"  Lik-Lodin  " — Einar  Sokkason — Ingimund  the  priest — Einar  Thor- 
geirsson — New  Land — The  northern  east  coast — Glaciers  on  the  east 
coast — Blaserkr — Hvitserkr — Placenames  on  the  east  coast — Voy- 
ages to  the  Northern  West  coast  of  Greenland,  NorSrsetur,  and 
Baffin  Bay  in  the  Middle  Ages — Runic  stone  from  72°  55'  N.  lat.^ 
NorSrsetur — Greipar  and  Kroksfjardarheidr.  Their  situation — Hi- 
minraS  and  Hunenrioth — NorSrsetur  not  beyond  Baffin  Bay— 
NorSrsetur  at  and  south  of  Disco  Bay — Voyage  to  Baffin  Bay  in 
1367. 

CHAPTER  IX 

WiNELAND     THE      GOOD,    THE     FORTUNATE      ISLES,     AND     THE     DIS- 
COVERY   OF     AMERICA 312 

The  oldest  authorities  on  Wineland — The  formation  of  the  saga— 
Leif  Ericson — Thorstein  Ericson — Karlsevne  in  Greenland — Karl-< 
sevne's  voyage  to  Wineland — The  composite  and  legendary  character 
of  the  whole  saga — Sweet  dew  and  manna — Furffustrandir — Mythical 
figures:  the  Scottish  runners — Mythical  figures:  Thorhall  and  Tyrker 
—The  stranded  whale — Eggs  in  the  autumn  and  egg-gatherings 
Wineland  the  equivalent  of  Fortunate  Isles — Schlaraffenland  and 
Fyldeholm — Irish  happy  lands  and  Wineland — Brandan's  Grape- 
Island — The  river  at  Hop  and  the  Styx — Wine-fruit  and  wine  in  Irish 
legends — Resemblances  to  Lucian — Connection  of  the  Brandan  legend 
with  northern  waters — Classical  roots  of  the  Brandan  legend — The 
Brandan  legend  and  Norse  literature — The  happy  land  in  the  west 
known  in  Northern  Europe — The  name  of  Wineland  derived  from 
Ireland — Landit  Go6a,  Fairyland — Laudatory  names  for  fairyland — 
Floating  islands — Fairylands  which  rise  and  fall — The  epithet  ''the 
Lucky" — The   oldest  authority,  Adam  of   Bremen,  untrustworthy. 


xm 


ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS  IN  VOL.  I. 

"  The  Golden  Clouds  Curtained  the  Deep  Where  It  Lay 

And  It  Looked  Like  An  Eden  Away,  Far  Away." Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The  World  according  to  Hecataeus     [Bunbury] 8 

The  World  according  to  the  ideas  of  Herodotus  [J.  Murray] . .  9 

Trade-Routes  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  North 21 

Cromlechs  in  Portugal  [after  Cartailhac]  and  in  Denmark  [after 

S.    Muller] 22 

Ancient  Egyptian  ship;  from  a  grave  in  western  Thebes  [after 

R.  Lepsius] 23 

Places  where  tin  is  found  in  western  Europe  and  routes  of  the 

tin-trade  in  ancient  times  [after  L.  Siret,  1908] 28 

Places  where  Amber  is  found 32 

Phoenician   warship,  according  to  an  Assyrian  representation  35 

Gnomon    46 

Sundial    47 

Greek  trading-vessel  and  longship  (warship),  from  a  rare  paint- 
ing (about  500  B.  C.) 48 

Pytheas'  probable  routes 49 

The  World  according  to  Strabo  [K.  Kretschmer,  1892] 74 

Reconstruction  of  Eratosthenes'  map  of  the  world  [K.  Miller, 

1898]    77 

Terrestrial   globe,   according  to    Crates   of   Mallus    [K.    Kret- 
schmer]       78 

The  World  according  to  Mela  86 

Europe  according  to  the  description  of  Mela 88 

Island  with  Hippopod  or  horse-foot  man   [from  the  Hereford 

map]    91 

Island  with  long-eared  man  [from  the  Hereford  map] 92 

The  nations  of  Tacitus  [after  K.  Miller] 109 

Boat  found  at  Nydam,  near  Flensburg.     Third  century  A.D.  70 

feet  long  [after  C.  Engelhardt] iro 

The  northern  part  of  Ptolemy's  map  of  the  world,  Europe  and 
Asia.     From  the  Rome  edition  of  Ptolemy  of  1490  [Nor- 

denskiold,  1889] 118,  119 

XV 


ILLUSTRATIONS   AND   MAPS   IN  VOL,  I. 

PAGE 

The  Scandinavian  North  according  to  Ptolemy.  The  most 
northern  people  in  Scandinavia,  the  Phinni,  are  omitted  in 
this  map,  as  in  most  MSS 120 

Ptolemy's  map  of  Europe,  etc.,  compared  with  the  true  con- 
ditions         121 

Ptolemy's  tribes  in  Denmark  and  South  Sw^eden 122 

Map  of  the  World  from  a  ninth-century  MS.  [in  the  Strasburg 

Library]    125 

Cosmas'  Map  of  the  World 126 

Cosmas'  representation  of  the  Universe 127 

The  more  important  tribal  names  in  Southern  Scandinavia,  ac- 
cording  to   Jordanes 134 

Map  of  the  world  in  the  MS.  of  Isidore,  tenth  century,  St.  Gallen 

[K.    Miller] 4 150 

The  oldest  known  map  of  the  world,  from  the  MS.  of  Isidore 

of  the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  St.  Gallen  [K.  Miller] . .     150 

Europe  on  the  reconstructed  map  of  the  world  of  the  Ravenna 

Geographer  [after  K.  Miller] 152 

Cynocephali  on  a  peninsula  north-east  of  Norway   [from  the 

Hereford  map] 154 

The  Seven  Sleepers  in  the  Cave  by  the  North  Sea  [from  Olaus 

Magnus]     155 

The  oldest  known  picture  of  a  ski-runner  [from  the  Hereford 

map's   representation   of   Norway,   thirteenth    century]....      157 

The  Maelstrom  near  the  Lofoten  Islands  [from  Olaus  Magnus]     158 

The   Faroes 163 

Map  of  northern  Scandinavia  and  the  White  Sea 170 

Anglo-Saxon    map    of    the    world,    "  Cottoniana,"    perhaps    of 

the  eleventh  century    [from  K.  Miller] 180 

Europe  on  the  Anglo-Saxon  Map  of  the  World,  "  Cottoniana," 

(eleventh    century?) 183 

Adam  of  Bremen's  geographical  idea  of  the  countries  and  islands 

of  the  North,  as  represented  by  A.  A.  Bjornbo  (1910) 186 

Uniped  [from  the  Hereford  map] 189 

Cannibals  in  Eastern  Europe  [from  the  Hereford  map] 190 

Elles  (elks)   and  Urus   (aurochs)   in  Russia   [from  the  Ebstorf 

map    (1284)] 191 

The  so-called  St.  Severus  version,  of  about  1050,  of  the  Beatus 

map    (eighth    century) 199 

Men    of    the    woods    in    northern    Scandinavia    [from    Olaus 

Magnus]    205 

xvi 


ILLUSTRATIONS   AND   MAPS   IN  VOL.   I. 

PAGE 

Skridfinns  hunting  [from  Olaus  Magnus] 211 

Fish-hooks   (of  reindeer-horn) ;  postherds ;  harpoon-points    (of 
reindeer-horn),  from   Kjelmo;  less  than  half  natural  size 

[after  O.  Solberg,  1909] 214 

Probable  mode  of  using  the  harpoon-points  from  Kjelmo 215 

Skridfinn   Archer    [from   Olaus    Magnus] 228 

Rock-carvings  in  Bohuslen 236 

Rock-carving  at  Bjornstad  in  Skjeberg,  Smalenene 237 

Bronze  knife  with  representation  of  a  ship,  of  the  later  Bronze 

Age,   Denmark 238 

Carvings  on  a  grave-stone  at  Novilara,  Italy 238 

Ship  from  the  Bayeux  tapestry  (eleventh  century),  and  rock- 
carving    . .  •. 239 

Shipment  of  tribute.     From  the  bronze  doors  from  Babavat, 

Assyria   (British   Museum) 241 

Warships  of  Ramses  III,  circa  1200  B.  C 242 

Stone  from  Stenkyrka  in  Gotland   (ninth  century) 243 

The  preserved  portion  of  the  Viking  ship  from  Gokstad,  near 

Sandef jord    (ninth   century) 246 

The   Viking   ship   from   Oseberg,   near   Tonsberg   (ninth   cen- 
tury)      247 

Ships  from  the  Bayeux  tapestry  (eleventh  century) 248 

Landing  of  William  the  Conqueror's  ships  in  England.    Bayeux 

tapestry    (eleventh  century) 249 

Seal  of  the  Town  of  Dover,  1284 250 

Dragon-ship  with  a  King  and  warrior   [from  the  Flatejarbok, 

circa     1390] 254 

The  Eastern  Settlement  of  Greenland  [from  F.  Jonsson,  1899]  265 

The  Western  Settlement  of  Greenland  [from  F.  Jonsson,  1899]  266 

View  from  the  mountin  Igdlerfigsalik 268,  269 

Part  of  the  interior  of   Eiriksfjord,  at   Brattalid  and  beyond 

[after  D.  Bruun,   1896] 270 

The  central  part  of  the  Eastern  Settlement 271 

The  plain  by  Igaliko    (Gardar)    with  ruins   [after  N.  P.  Jor- 

gensen]    272 

View  from  the  mountain  Iganek,  looking  south   [after  N.   P. 

Jorgensen]    274,  275 

Remains  of  a  sheep-pen  at  Kakortok  [after  Th.  Groth] 276 

The  southern  glacier   (Hvftserk)   in  62°   10'  N.  lat 286 

The  mountains  from  Tingmiarmiut  Fjord  northward  in  62°  35' 

N.  lat 288,  289 

xvii 


ILLUSTRATIONS  AND   MAPS   IN  VOL.  I. 

PAGE 

The  northern  part  of  "  Midjgkull "  and  the  country  to  the  west 

of  Sermilikfjord,  in  65°  40'  N.  lat 290 

The  mountains  near  Angmagsahk,  east  of  Sermilikfjord     ....  291 
The    inland    ice   at    "  Midjgkull "    and    the    mountain    Kiatak, 

64°   20'  N.  lat 292 

The  mountains   about  Ingolf's   Fjeld 293 

Runic  stone  from  Kingigtorsuak  [after  A.  A.  Bjornbo] 297 

Driftwood.     From  an  Icelandic  MS.,  fifteenth  century 307 

From  an  Icelandic  MS.,  fourteenth  century 312 

From  an  Icelandic  MS.  (Jonsbok),  sixteenth  century 316 

From  an  Icelandic  MS.  (Jonsbok),  fifteenth  century 220 

From  an  Icelandic  MS.    (Jonsbok),  fourteenth   century 329 

The  relative  distances  between  the  countries 335 

From  a  MS.  of  the  thirteenth  century  [Royal  Library,  Copen- 
hagen]      357 


XVlll 


INTRODUCTION 

"  For   my   purpose   holds 
^  "        To  sail  beyond  the  sunset  and  the  baths 
Of  all  the  Western  stars  until  I  die." 

Tennyson,  "  Ulysses." 

2.  /  7  // 

IN  the  beginning  the  world  appeared  to  mankind  like  a  fairy 
tale;  everything  that  lay  beyond  the  circle  of  familiar  ex- 
perience was  a  shifting  cloudland  of  the  fancy,  a  playground  for 
all  the  fabled  beings  of  mythology;  but  in  the  farthest  distance, 
towards  the  west  and  north,  was  the  region  of  darkness  and 
mists,  where  sea,  land  and  sky  were  merged  into  a  congealed 
mass — and  at  the  end  of  all  gaped  the  immeasurable  mouth  of 
the  abyss,  the  awful  void  of  space. 

Out  of  this  fairy  world,  in  course  of  time,  the  calm  and  sober 
lines  of  the  northern  landscape  appeared.  With  unspeakable 
labor  the  eye  of  man  has  forced  its  way  gradually  towards  the 
north,  over  mountains  and  forests,  and  tundra,  onward  through 
the  mists  along  the  vacant  shores  of  the  polar  sea — the  vast  still- 
ness, where  so  much  struggle  and  suffering,  so  many  bitter 
failures,  so  many  proud  victories,  have  vanished  without  a  trace, 
muffled  beneath  the  mantle  of  snow. 

When  our  thoughts  go  back  through  the  ages  in  a  waking 
dream,  an  endless  procession  passes  before  us — like  a  single 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

mighty  epic  of  the  human  mind's  power  of  devotion  to  an  idea, 
right  or  wrong — a  procession  of  struggling,  frost-covered  figures 
in  heavy  clothes,  some  erect  and  powerful,  others  weak  and 
bent  so  that  they  can  scarcely  drag  themselves  along  before 
the  sledges,  many  of  them  emaciated  and  dying  of  hunger, 
cold  and  scurvy;  but  all  looking  out  before  them  towards  the 
unknown,  beyond  the  sunset,  where  the  goal  of  their  struggle 
is  to  be  found. 

We  see  a  Pytheas,  intelligent  and  courageous,  steering 
northward  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  for  the  discovery  of 
Britain  and  Northern  Europe;  we  see  hardy  Vikings,  with  an 
Ottar,  a  Leif  Ericson  at  their  head,  sailing  in  undecked  boats 
across  the  ocean  into  ice  and  tempest  and  clearing  the  mists 
from  an  unseen  world;  we  see  a  Davis,  a  Baffin  forcing  their 
way  to  the  north-west  and  opening  up  new  routes,  while  a 
Hudson,  unconquered  by  ice  and  winter,  finds  a  lonely  grave 
on  a  deserted  shore,  a  victim  of  shabby  pilfering.  We  see 
the  bright  form  of  a  Parry  surpassing  all  as  he  forces  himself 
on;  a  Nordenskiold,  broad-shouldered  and  confident,  leading  the 
way  to  new  visions;  a  Toll  mysteriously  disappearing  in  the 
drifting  ice.  We  see  men  driven  to  despair,  shooting  and  eat- 
ing each  other;  but  at  the  same  time  we  see  noble  figures,  like 
a  De  Long,  trying  to  save  their  journals  from  destruction,  until 
they  sink  and  die. 

Midway  in  the  procession  comes  a  long  file  of  a  hundred  and 
thirty  men  hauling  heavy  boats  and  sledges  back  to  the  south, 
but  they  are  falling  in  their  tracks;  one  after  another  they  lie 
there,  marking  the  line  of  route  with  their  corpses — they  are 
Franklin's  men. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  latest  drama,  the  Greenlander 
Bronlund  dragging  himself  forward  over  the  ice-fields  through 
cold  and  winter  darkness,  after  the  leader  Mylius-Erichsen 
and  his  comrade,  Hagen,  have  both  stiffened  in  the  snow  during 
the  long  and  desperate  journey.  He  reaches  the  depot  only  to 
wait  for  death,  knowing  that  the  maps  and  observations  he  has 
faithfully  brought  with  him  will  be  found  and  saved.     He  quietly 


INTRODUCTION 

prepares  himself  for  the  silent  guest,  and  writes  in  his  journal  in 
his  imperfect  Danish: 

Perished, — 79  Fjord,  after  attempt  return  over  the  inland  ice,  in  November. 
I  come  here  in  waning  moon  and  could  not  get  further  for  frost-bitten  feet 
and  darkness. 

The  bodies  of  the  others  are  in  the  middle  of  the  fjord  opposite  the  glacier 
(about  2i   leagues). 

Hagen  died  November  15  and  Mylius  about  10  days  after. 

JORGEN    BRONLUND. 

What  a  story  in  these  few  Hnes!  Civilization  bows  its  head 
by  the  grave  of  this  Eskimo. 

What  were  they  seeking  in  the  ice  and  cold?  The  Norseman 
who  wrote  the  "  King's  Mirror  "  gave  the  answer  six  hundred 
years  ago :  "  If  you  wish  to  know  what  men  seek  in  this  land, 
or  why  men  journey  thither  in  so  great  danger  of  their  lives,  then 
it  is  the  threefold  nature  of  man  which  draws  him  thither.  One 
part  of  him  is  emulation  and  desire  of  fame,  for  it  is  man's 
nature  to  go  where  there  is  likelihood  of  great  danger,  and  to 
make  himself  famous  thereby.  Another  part  is  the  desire  of 
knowledge,  for  it  is  man's  nature  to  wish  to  know  and  see 
those  parts  of  which  he  has  heard,  and  to  find  out  whether  they 
are  as  it  was  told  him  or  not.  The  third  part  is  the  desire  of 
gain,  seeing  that  men  seek  after  riches  in  every  place  where 
they  learn  that  profit  is  to  be  had,  even  though  there  be  great 
danger  in  it." 

The  history  of  arctic  discovery  shows  how  the  development 
of  the  human  race  has  always  been  borne  along  by  great  illusions. 
Just  as  Columbus's  discovery  of  the  West  Indies  was  due  to  a 
gross  error  of  calculation,  so  it  was  the  fabled  isle  of  Brazil  that 
drew  Cabot  out  on  his  voyage,  when  he  found  North  America. 
It  was  fantastic  illusions  of  open  polar  seas  and  of  passages  to 
the  riches  of  Cathay  beyond  the  ice  that  drove  men  back  there 
in  spite  of  one  failure  after  another;  and  little  by  little  the 
polar  regions  were  explored.  Every  complete  devotion  to  an 
idea  yields  some  profit,  even  though  it  be  different  from 
that  which  was  expected, 

3 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

But  from  first  to  last  the  history  of  polar  exploration  is  a 
single  mighty  manifestation  of  the  power  of  the  unknown  over 
the  mind  of  man,  perhaps  greater  and  more  evident  here  than  in 
any  other  phase  of  human  life.  Nowhere  else  have  we  won  our 
way  more  slowly,  nowhere  else  has  every  new  step  cost  so 
much  trouble,  so  many  privations  and  sufferings,  and  certainly 
nowhere  have  the  resulting  discoveries  promised  fewer  ma- 
terial advantages — and  nevertheless,  new  forces  have  always 
been  found  ready  to  carry  the  attack  farther,  to  stretch  once  more 
the  limits  of  the  world. 

But  if  it  has  cost  a  struggle,  it  is  not  without  its  joys.  Who 
can  describe  his  emotion  when  the  last  difficult  ice-floe  has  been 
passed,  and  the  sea  lies  open  before  him,  leading  to  new  realms? 
Or  when  the  mist  clears  and  mountain-summits  shoot  up,  one 
behind  another  farther  and  farther  away,  on  which  the  eye 
of  man  has  never  rested,  and  in  the  farthest  distance  peaks  ap- 
pear on  the  sea-horizon — on  the  sky  above  them  a  yellowish 
white  reflection  of  the  snow-fields — where  the  imagination  pic- 
tures new  continents.     .     .     . 

Ever  since  the  Norsemen's  earliest  voyages  arctic  expeditions 
have  certainly  brought  material  advantages  to  the  human  race, 
such  as  rich  fisheries,  whaling  and  sealing,  and  so  on;  they 
have  produced  scientific  results  in  the  knowledge  of  hitherto  un- 
known regions  and  conditions;  but  they  have  given  us  far  more 
than  this:  they  have  tempered  the  humian  will  for  the  conquest 
of  difficulties;  they  have  furnished  a  school  of  manliness 
and  self-conquest  in  the  midst  of  the  slackness  of  varying  ages, 
and  have  held  up  noble  ideals  before  the  rising  generation; 
they  have  fed  the  imagination,  have  given  fairy-tales  to  the  child, 
and  raised  the  thoughts  of  its  elders  above  their  daily 
toil.  Take  arctic  travel  out  of  our  history,  and  will  it  not  be 
poorer?  Perhaps  we  have  here  the  greatest  service  it  has  done 
humanity. 

We  speak  of  the  first  discovery  of  the  North — but  how  do 
we  know  when  the  first  man  arrived  in  the  northern  regions  of 
the  earth?  We  know  nothing  but  the  very  last  steps  in  the 
4 


INTRODUCTION 

migrations  of  humanity.  What  a  stretch  of  time  there  must 
have  been  between  the  period  of  the  Neanderthal  man  in  Europe 
and  the  first  Pelasgians,  or  Iberians,  or  Celts,  that  we  find  there 
in  the  neolithic  age,  in  the  earliest  dawn  of  history.  How  in- 
finitesimal in  comparison  with  this  the  whole  of  the  recent  period 
which  we  call  history  becomes. 

What  took  place  in  those  long  ages  is  still  hidden  from  us. 
We  only  know  that  ice  age  followed  ice  age,  covering  Northern 
Europe,  and  to  some  extent  Asia  and  North  America  as  well, 
with  vast  glaciers  which  obliterated  all  traces  of  early  human 
habitation  of  those  regions.  Between  these  ice  ages  occurred 
warmer  periods,  when  men  once  more  made  their  way  north- 
ward, to  be  again  driven  out  by  the  next  advance  of  the  ice-sheet. 
There  are  many  signs  that  the  human  northward  migration  after 
the  last  ice  age,  in  any  case  in  large  districts  of  Europe,  followed 
fairly  close  upon  the  gradual  shrinking  of  the  boundary  of  the 
inland  ice  towards  the  interior  of  Scandinavia,  where  the  ice- 
sheath  held  out  longest. 

The  primitive  state — when  men  wandered  about  the  forests 
and  plains  of  the  warmer  parts  of  the  earth,  living  on  what  they 
found  by  chance — developed  by  slow  gradations  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  first  beginnings  of  culture;  on  one  side  to  roving 
hunters  and  fishers,  on  the  other  to  agricultural  people  with  a 
more  fixed  habitation.  The  nomad  with  his  herds  forms  a  later 
stage  of  civilization. 

The  hunting  stage  of  culture  was  imposed  by  necessity  on  the 
first  pioneers  and  inhabitants  of  the  northernmost  and  least 
hospitable  regions  of  the  earth.  The  northern  lands  must  there- 
fore have  been  first  discovered  by  roving  fishermen  who  came 
northward  following  the  rivers  and  seashores  in  their  search  for 
new  fishing-grounds.  It  was  the  scouting  eye  of  a  hunter  that 
first  saw  a  sea-beach  in  the  dreamy  light  of  a  summer  night,  and 
sought  to  penetrate  the  heavy  gloom  of  the  polar  sea.  And  that 
far-travelled  hunter  fell  asleep  in  the  snowdrift  while  the  north- 
ern lights  played  over  him  as  a  funeral  fire,  the  first  victim  of  the 
polar  night's  iron  grasp. 

5 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Long  afterwards  came  the  nomad  and  the  agriculturist  and 
established  themselves  in  the  track  of  the  hunter. 

This  was  thousands  of  years  before  any  written  history,  and 
of  these  earliest  colonizations  we  know  nothing  but  what  the 
chance  remains  we  find  in  the  ground  can  tell  us,  and  these  are 
very  few  and  very  uncertain. 

It  is  not  until  we  come  far  down  into  the  full  daylight  of 
history  that  we  find  men  setting  out  with  the  conscious  purpose 
of  exploring  the  unknown  for  its  own  sake.  With  those  early 
hunters,  it  was  doubtless  new  ground  and  new  game  that  drew 
them  on,  but  they  too  were  attracted,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, by  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  the  unknown — so  deep 
in  the  soul  of  man  does  this  divine  force  lie,  the  mainspring, 
perhaps,  of  the  greatest  of  our  actions.  In  every  part  of  the 
world  and  in  every  age  it  has  driven  man  forward  on  the  path 
of  evolution,  and  as  long  as  the  human  ear  can  hear  the  breaking 
of  waves  over  deep  seas,  as  long  as  the  human  eye  can  follow 
the  track  of  the  northern  lights  over  silent  snow-fields,  as  long 
as  human  thought  seeks  distant  worlds  in  infinite  space,  so  long 
will  the  fascination  of  the  unknown  carry  the  human  mind  forward 
and  uDv.-ard. 


Ship  of  the  Egyptian  Punt  expedition,  17th  century,  B.C.  [J.  DUMICHEN] 


CHAPTER  I 


ANTIQUITY,  BEFORE  PYTHEAS 

THE  learned  world  of  early  antiquity  had  nothing  but  a 
vague  premonition  of  the  North.  Along  the  routes  of 
traffic  commercial  relations  were  established  at  a  very  early 
time  with  the  northern  lands.  At  first  these  ran  perhaps  along 
the  rivers  of  Russia  and  eastern  Germany  to  the  Baltic,  after- 
wards along  the  rivers  of  Central  Europe  as  well.  But  the 
information  which  reached  the  Mediterranean  peoples  by  these 
routes  had  to  go  through  many  intermediaries  with  various 
languages,  and  for  this  reason  it  long  remained  vague  and 
uncertain. 

What  the  people  of  antiquity  did  not  know,  they  supplied 
by  poetical  and  mythical  conceptions;  and  in  time  there  grew 
up  about  the  outer  limits  of  the  world,  especially  on  the  north, 
a  whole  cycle  of  legend  which  was  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
ideas  of  the  polar  regions  for  thousands  of  years,  far  into  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  long  after  trustworthy  knowledge  had  been 
won,  even  by  the  voyages  of  the  Norsemen  themselves. 

Long  before  people  knew  whether  there  were  lands  and 
seas  far  in  the  north,  those  who  studied  the  stars  had  observed 
that  there  were  some  bodies  in  the  northern  sky  which  never 
set,  and  that  there  was  a  point  in  the  vault  of  heaven  which 

7 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


never  changed  its  place.  In  time,  they  also  found  that,  as  they 
moved  northwards,  the  circle  surrounding  the  stars  that  were 
always  visible  became  larger,  and  they  saw  that  these  in  their 
daily  movements  described  orbits  about  the  fixed  point  or  pole 
of  the  heavens.  The  ancient  Chaldeans  had  already  found  this 
out.     From  this  observation  it  was  but  a  short  step  to  the 

deduction  that  the 
earth  could  not  be 
flat,  as  the  popular 
idea  made  it,  but 
must  in  one  way  or 
another  be  spherical, 
and  that  if  one  went 
far  enough  to  the 
north,  these  stars 
would  be  right  over 
one's  head.  To  the 
Greeks  a  circle 
drawn  through  the 
constellation  of  the 
Great  Bear,  which 
they  called  "  Arktos," 
formed  the  limit  of 
the  stars  that  were 
always  visible.  This  limit  was  therefore  called  the  Bear's 
circle,  or  the  "  Arctic  Circle,"  and  thus  this  designation  for 
the  northernmost  regions  of  the  earth  is  derived  from 
the  sky. 

According  to  the  common  Greek  idea  it  was  the  countries 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  of  the  East  that  formed  the  disc  of 
the  earth,  or  "  oecumene  "  (the  habitable  world).  Around  this 
disc,  according  to  the  Homeric  songs  (the  Iliad  was  put  into 
writing  about  900  B.C.),  flowed  the  all-embracing  river 
"  Oceanus,"  the  end  of  the  earth  and  the  limit  of  heaven. 
This  deep,  tireless,  quietly-flowing  river,  whose  stream  turned 
back  upon  itself,  was  the  origin  and  the  end  of  all  things;  it 
8 


The  world  according  to  Hecatasus  (BUNBURY) 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

was  not  only  the  father  of  the  Oceanides  and  of  the  rivers,  but 
also  the  source  whence  came  gods  and  men.  Nothing  definite 
is  said  of  this  river's  farther  boundary;  perhaps  unknown 
lands  belonging  to  another  world  whereon  the  sky  rested  were 
there;  in  any  case  we  meet  later,  as  in  Hesiod,  with  ideas  of 
lands   beyond    the    Ocean,    the    Hesperides,    Erythea,    and    the 


The  world  according  to  the  ideas  of  Herodotus  (J.  MURRAY) 

Isles  of  the  Blest,  which  were  probably  derived  from  Phoenician 
tales.  Originally  conceived  as  a  deep-flowing  river,  Oceanus 
became  later  the  all-embracing  empty  ocean,  which  was 
different  from  the  known  sea  (the  Mediterranean)  with  its 
known  coasts,  even  though  connected  with  it.  Herodotus 
(484-424  B.C.)  is  perhaps  the  first  who  used  the  name  in  this 
sense;  he  definitely  rejects  the  idea  of  Oceanus  as  a  river  and 
denies  that  the  "  oecumene  "  should  be  drawn  round,  as  though 
with  a  pair  of  compasses,  as  the  Ionian  geographers  (Hecataeus, 
for  example)  thought.  He  considered  it  proved  that  the  earth's 
disc  on  the  western  side,  and  probably  also  on  the  south,  was 
surrounded  by  the   ocean,  but  said  that  no  one  could  know 

9 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

whether  this  was  also  the  case  on  the  north  and  north-east. 
In  opposition  to  Hecatasus  '  and  the  Ionian  geographers  (the 
school  of  Miletus)  he  asserted  that  the  Caspian  Sea  was  not  a 
bay  of  the  northern  Oceanus,  but  an  independent  inland  sea. 
Thus  the  "  oecumene  "  became  extended  into  the  unknown  on 
the  north-east.  He  mentions  several  peoples  as  dwelling  farthest 
north;  but  to  the  north  of  them  were  desert  regions  and  inac- 
cessible mountains;  how  far  they  reached  he  does  not  say. 

He  thus  left  the  question  undetermined,  because,  with  the 
sound  cool-headedness  of  the  inquirer,  which  made  him  in  a 
sense  the  founder  of  physical  geography,  he  trusted  to  certain 
observations  rather  than  to  uncertain  speculations;  and 
therefore  he  maintained  that  the  geographers  of  the  Ionian 
school  had  not  provided  adequate  proofs  that  the  world  was 
really  surrounded  by  sea  on  all  sides.  But  nevertheless,  it  was, 
perhaps,  his  final  opinion  that  the  earth's  disc  swam  like  an 
island  in  Oceanus. 

This  common  name  for  the  ocean  was  soon  dropped, 
and  men  spoke  instead  of  the  Outer  Sea  beyond  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  in  contradistinction  to  the  Inner  Sea  (i.e.,  the 
Mediterranean).  The  Outer  Sea  was  also  called  the  Atlantic 
Sea  after  Atlas.  This  name  is  first  found  in  Herodotus.  South 
of  Asia  was  the  Southern  Ocean  or  the  Erythraean  Sea  (the  Red 
Sea  and  Indian  Ocean).  North  of  Europe  and  Asia  was  the 
Northern  Ocean;  and  the  Caspian  Sea  was  a  bay  of  this,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  majority.  Doubtless,  most  people  thought 
that  these  various  oceans  were  connected;  but  the  common 
name  Oceanus  does  not  reappear  as  applied  to  them  until  the 
second  century,  B.C.- 

According  to  the  Homeric  conception  the  universe  was  to 
be  imagined  somewhat  as  a  hollow  globe,  divided  in  tv/o  by 
the   disc   of  the   earth   and   its   encircling   Oceanus;   the   upper 

1  Hecataeus  of  Miletus  (549-after  486,  B.C.)  was  the  best-known  geographer 
of  the  Ionian  school.  He  made  a  map  of  the  world,  and  summarized  the  con- 
temporary Greek  ideas  of  geography. 

'  Cf.  Kretschmer,  1892,  pp.  41-42. 
10 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

hemisphere  was  that  of  light,  or  the  heaven;  the  lower  one 
Tartarus,  hidden  in  eternal  darkness.  Hades  lay  beneath  the 
earth,  and  Tartarus  was  as  far  below  Hades  as  the  sky  was 
above  the  earth.  The  solid  vault  of  heaven  was  borne  by  Atlas, 
but  its  extremities  certainly  rested  upon  Oceanus  (or  its  outer 
boundary),  or  at  least  were  contained  thereby.  According  to 
Hesiod  (about  800  B.C.)  an  anvil  falling  from  heaven  would 
not  reach  earth  till  the  tenth  day,  and  from  the  earth  it  would 
fall  for  nine  days  and  nine  nights  and  not  reach  the  bottom  of 
Tartarus  until  the  tenth.  This  underworld  is  filled  to  the  brim 
with  triple  darkness,  and  the  Titans  have  been  hurled  into  it 
and  cannot  come  out.  On  the  brink  the  limits  of  the  earth,  the 
waste  Oceanus,  black  Tartarus,  and  the  starry  heaven  all  coin- 
cide. Tartarus  is  a  deep  gulf  at  which  even  the  gods  shudder; 
in  a  whole  year  it  would  be  impossible  to  search  through  it.' 

So  early  do  we  find  three  conceptions  which  two  thousand 
years  later  still  formed  the  foundation  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
earth's  outer  limits,  especially  on  the  north:  (i)  The  all- 
embracing  Oceanus  or  empty  ocean;  (2)  The  coincidence  of 
sky,  sea,  land  and  underworld  at  the  uttermost  edge;  and 
lastly  (3)  the  dismal  gulf  into  which  even  the  gods  were  afraid 
of  falling. 

These  or  similar  ideas  still  obtained  long  after  the  mathe- 
matical geographers  had  conceived  the  earth  as  a  sphere. 
Pythagoras  (568-about  494  B.C.)  was  probably  the  first  to 
proclaim  the  doctrine  of  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth.  He 
relied  less  upon  observation  than  upon  the  speculative  idea 
that  the  sphere  was  the  most  perfect  form.  Before  him 
Anaximander  of  Miletus  (6ii-after  547  B.C.),  to  whom  are 
attributed  the  invention  of  the  gnomon,  or  sun-dial,  and  the 
first  representation  of  the  earth's  disc  on  a  map,  had  maintained 
that  the  earth  was  a  cylinder  floating  in  space;  the  inhabited 
part  was  the  upper  flat  end.  His  pupil  Anaximenes  (second 
half  of  the  sixth  century,  B.C.),  thought  that  the  earth  had  the 
form  of  a  trapezium,  supported  by  the  air  beneath,  which  it 

1  Berger,  1894,  p.  13. 

II 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

compressed  like  the  lid  of  a  vase;  while  before  him  Thales  of 
Miletus  (640-about  548  B.C.)  was  inclined  to  hold  that  the 
earth's  disc  swam  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  in  the  middle 
of  the  hollow  sphere  of  heaven,  and  that  earthquakes  were 
caused  by  movements  of  the  waters.' 

Parmenides  of  Elea  (about  460  B.C.)  divided  the  earth's 
sphere  into  five  zones  or  belts,  of  which  three  were  uninhabi- 
table: the  zone  of  heat,  or  the  scorched  belt  round  the  equator, 
and  the  two  zones  of  cold  at  the  poles.  Between  the  warmth 
and  the  cold  there  were  on  either  side  of  the  hot  zone  two 
temperate  zones  where  men  might  live.  This  division  was 
originally  derived  from  the  five  zones  of  the  heavens,  where 
the  Arctic  Circle  formed  the  boundary  of  the  northern  stars 
that  are  always  visible,  and  the  tropics  that  of  the  zone  domi- 
nated by  the  sun.  Pythagoras  seems  to  have  been  the  first 
to  transfer  it  to  the  globe,  the  centre  of  the  universe.-  This 
idea  of  the  earth's  five  habitable  and  uninhabitable  zones  was 
current  till  nearly  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages;  but  at  the 
same  time  one  finds,  often  far  on  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  former 
conceptions  of  the  empty  ocean  encircling  all,  and  of  the 
"  oecumene "  swimming  in  it  as  an  island.  Occasionally  we 
meet  with  a  vast  unknown  continent  beyond  this  ocean, 
belonging  to  another  world,  which  no  one  can  reach.^  Together 
with  these  theories,  though  not  very  conspicuously,  the  belief 
in  the  immeasurable  gulf  at  the  edge  of  the  world  also  persisted ; 
and  this  became  the    "  Ginnungagap  "  of  our  forefathers. 

The  conception  of  the  earth's  form  and  of  its  uttermost  limits 
was  thus  by  no  means  consistent,  and  on  some  points  it  was 
contradictory.  We  must  always,  and  especially  in  dealing  with 
past  times,  distinguish  between  the  views  of  the  scientific  world 
and  those  of  ordinary  people,  two  aspects  which  were  often 
hopelessly  mixed  together.     And  again  in  the  scientific  world 

1  Men    like    Empedocles,    Leucippus,    Heraclitus,    Anaxagoras,    and    even 
Herodotus  entertained  the  naive  view  that  the  earth  was  a  disc. 

2  Cf.  Kretschmer,  1892,  p.  99;  Berger  ii.,  1889,  p.  36. 

3  Cf.  Theopompus  (about  340  B.C.)  in  ^lian,  "  Varia,"  iii.  c.  18. 
12 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

we  must  distinguish  between  the  mathematical-physical 
geographers  and  the  historical,  since  the  latter  dealt  more  with 
descriptions  and  were  apt  to  follow  accounts  and  legends  rather 
than  what  was  taught  by  physical  observations. 

The  world  which  the  Greeks  really  knew  was  bounded  in 
the  earlier  period  on  the  north  by  the  Balkans.     These  again 
gave    rise    to    the    mythical    Rhipaean    Mountains,    which    were 
soon  moved  farther  to  the  north  or  north-east  ^  as  knowledge 
increased,  and  so  they  and  the  Alps  were  made  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  known  world.     As  to  what  lay  farther  off,  the 
Greeks  had  very  vague  ideas;  they  seem  to  have  thought  that 
the  frozen  polar  countries  began  there,  where  it  was  so  cold 
that  people  had  to  wear  breeches  like  the  Scythians;  or  else 
it  was  a   good  climate,  since  it  lay  north   of  the  north   wind 
which   came    from    the    Rhipaean    Mountains.     But    that   some 
genuine  information  about  the  North  had  reached  them  as  early 
as  the  time  of  the  Odyssey  seems  to  be  shown  by  the  tale  of 
the  Lasstrygons — who  had  the  long  day,  and  whose  shepherds, 
driving  their  flocks  in  at  evening,  could  call  to  those  who  were 
setting  out  in  the  morning,  since  the  paths  of  day  and  night 
were  with  them  so  close  to  one  another — and  of  the  Cimmerians 
at  the  gates  of  the  underworld,  who  lived  in  a  land  of  fog, 
on  the   shores   of   Oceanus,   in   eternal   cheerless  night.     It   is 
true   that   the   poet   seems   to   have   imagined   these    countries 
somewhere  in  the  east  or  north-east,  probably  by  the  Black 
Sea;  for  Odysseus  came  from  the  Lasstrygons  to  the  isle  of 
JEsea  "by  the  mansions  and  dancing-places  of  the  Dawn  and 
by  the  place  where  the  sun  rises."     And  from  .ffiaea  the  Greek 
hero  steered  right  out  into  the  night  and  the  mist  on  the  danger- 

1  The  celebrated  physician  Hippocrates  (470-364  B.C.)  makes  Scythia 
extend  on  the  north  to  the  Rhipaean  Mountains,  which  stretch  far  enough  to 
be  just  below  the  Great  Bear.  From  them  comes  the  north  wind,  which 
therefore  does  not  blow  farther  north,  so  that  there  must  be  a  milder  climate 
where  the  Hyperboreans  dwell.  The  Rhipaean  Mountains  had  become  al- 
together mythical,  but  seem  often  to  have  been  connected  with  the  Ural  and 
placed  north  of  Scythia;  sometimes  also  they  were  connected  with  the  Alps, 
or  with  the  mountains  farther  east. 

13 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

ous  waters  of  Oceanus  and  came  to  the  Cimmerians/  who  must 
therefore  have  dwelt  beyond  the  sunrise,  shrouded  in  cloud 
and  fogs.  It  might  be  supposed  that  it  was  natural  to  the 
poet  to  believe  that  there  must  be  night  beyond  the  sunrise 
and  on  the  way  to  the  descent  to  the  nether  regions;  but  it 
is,  perhaps,  more  probable  that  both  the  long  day  and  the  dark- 
ness and  fog  are  an  echo  of  tales  about  the  northern  summer 
and  the  long  winter  night,  and  that  these  tales  reached  the 
Greeks  by  the  trade-routes  along  the  Russian  rivers  and  across 
the  Black  Sea,  for  which  reason  the  districts  where  these 
marvels  were  to  be  found  were  reported  to  lie  in  that  direction. 
A  find  in  the  passage-graves  of  Mycense  (fourteenth  to  twelfth 
century,  B.C.)  of  beads  made  of  amber  from  the  Baltic,^  besides 
many  pieces  of  amber  from  the  period  of  the  Dorian  migration 
■(before  the  tenth  century)  found  during  the  recent  English 
excavations  of  the  temple  of  Artemis  at  Sparta,^  furnish  certain 
evidence  that  the  Greek  world  had  intercourse  with  the  Baltic 
countries  long  before  the  Odyssey  was  put  into  writing  in  the 

1  The  Cimmerians  of  the  "  Odyssey  "  (xi.  14)  are  undoubtedly  the  same  as 
the  historical  Cimmerians  of  the  districts  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  who  made 
several  inroads  into  Asia  Minor  in  the  eighth  century,  and  whose  name  was 
long  preserved  in  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus.  Cf.  Niese,  1882,  p.  224,  and 
K.  Kretschmer,  1892,  p.  7.  W.  Christ  [1866,  pp.  131-132]  connects  the  name 
with  the  Cimbri  of  Jutland  whose  name  is  alleged  to  have  been  somewhat 
modified  under  the  influence  of  the  Phoenician  "  kamar,"  dark,  which  may  be 
doubtful;  but  Posidonius  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  take  Cimmerii  and 
Cimbri  for  the  same  name  [cf.  Strabo,  vii,  293],  and  there  is  nothing  improb- 
able in  the  supposition  that  the  wandering  Cimbri  may  have  reached  the  Black 
Sea  and  been  the  same  people  as  the  Cimmerians,  who  were  remarkable  just 
in  the  same  way  for  their  migrations.  Similarly,  we  find  the  Goths  both  on 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic  and  by  the  Black  Sea,  where  we  first  meet  with  them 
in  literature. 

2  O.  Helm  of  Danzig  has  shown  by  chemical  analysis  that  the  amber  of  the 
Mycenae  beads  contains  8  per  cent,  of  succinic  acid,  and  is  thus  similar  to  that 
found  on  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea,  and  unlike  all  known  amber  from  dis- 
tricts farther  south,  Sicily,  upper  Italy  or  elsewhere.  Cf.  Schuchhardt,  1890, 
p.  223,  f.,  and  Kretschmer,  1892,  p.  10. 

3  "  The  Times"  of  Sept.  28,  igog,  pp.  g-io.  A.  W.  Brogger  [igog,  p.  23g] 
mentions  a  find  from  a  grave  at  Corinth  of  six  necklaces  of  amber,  of  the 
neolithic  period,  which  is  preserved  in  the  Museum  fiir  Volkerkunde  at  Berlin. 
Brogger  informs  me  that  nothing  has  been  published  about  this  find,  which 

14 


ANTIQUITY,   B^ORE   PYTHEAS 

eighth  century,  even  though  the  northern  lands  of  this  poem 
seem  to  have  been  limited  by  a  communication  by  sea  between 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  Adriatic,  running  north  of  the  Balkan 
peninsula.  Perhaps  this  imaginary  communication  may  have 
been  conceived  as  going  by  the  Ister  (Danube),  which,  at  any 
rate,  later,  was  thought  to  have  another  outlet  in  the  Adriatic. 
We  may  alsoThnd  echoes  of  tales  about  the  dark  winter  and 
light  summer  of  the  North  in  Sophocles's  tragedy,  where  we 
are  told  that  Orithyia  was  carried  off  by  Boreas  and  borne  over 

.    .   the  whole  mirror  of  the  sea,  to  the  edge  of  the  earth 
To  the  source  of  primaeval  night,  where  the  vault  of  heaven  ends, 
Where  lies  the  ancient  garden  of  Phoebus.^ 

— though  images  of  this  sort  may  also  be  due  to  an  idea  that 
the  sun  remained  during  the  night  beyond  the  northern  regions. 
According  to  a  comparatively  late  Greek  conception  there 
was  in  the  far  North  a  happy  people  called  the  Hyperboreans. 
They  dwelt  "  under  the  shining  way  "  (the  clear  northern  sky) 
north  of  the  roaring  Boreas,  so  far  that  this  cold  north  wind 
could  not  reach  them,  and  therefore  enjoyed  a  splendid  climate. 
They  did  not  live  in  houses,  but  in  woods  and  groves.  With 
them  injustice  and  war  were  unknown,  they  were  untouched 
by  age  or  sickness;  at  joyous  sacrificial  feasts,  with  golden 
laurel-wreaths  in  their  hair,  and  amid  song  and  the  sound  of  the 
cithara  and  the  dancing  of  maidens,  they  led  a  careless  existence 
in  undisturbed  gladness,  and  reached  an  immense  age.  When 
they  were  tired  of  life  they  threw  themselves,  after  having 
eaten  and  drunk,  joyfully  and  with  wreaths  in  their  hair,  into 
the  sea  from  a  particular  cliff  (according  to  Mela  and  Pliny, 
following  Hecataeus  of  Abdera).  Among  other  qualities  they 
had  the  power  of  flying,  and  one  of  them,  Abaris,  flew  around 
the  world   on  an  arrow.     While   some   geographers,   especially 

was  bought  in  1877  from  Prof.  Aus'm  Weerth  of  Kessenich,  near  Bonn.  Prof. 
Schaafhausen  briefly  mentioned  it  at  the  congress  at  Stockholm  in  1874  [Con- 
gr^s  intemat.  d'anthrop.  et  d'archeol.  de  Stockholm,  Compte  rendu,  1874,  ii.  p. 
8i£]^,Assuming  that  this  is  Baltic  or  North  Sea  amber,  it  points  to  an  inter- 
coijjH  of  even  far  greater  antiquity,  which  is  also  probable, 
"^trabo,  vii.  295. 

15 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

the  lonians,  placed  them  in  the  northern  regions,  beyond  the 
Rhipaean  Mountains,'  Hecataeus  of  Abdera  (first  half  of 
the  third  century,  B.C.),  who  wrote  a  work  about  the  Hyper- 
boreans, collected  from  various  sources,  and  more  like  a  novel 
than  anything  else,  declares  that  they  dwelt  far  beyond  the 
accessible  regions,  on  the  island  of  Elixoea  in  the  farthest  north- 
ern Oceanus,  where  the  tired  stars  sink  to  rest,  and  where  the 
moon  is  so  near  that  one  can  easily  distinguish  the  inequalities 
of  its  surface.  Leto  was  born  there,  and  therefore  Apollo  is 
more  honored  with  them  than  other  gods.  There  is  a  mar- 
vellous temple,  round  like  a  sphere,^  which  floats  freely  in  the 
air  borne  by  wings,  and  which  is  rich  in  offerings.  To  this 
holy  island  Apollo  came  every  ninth  year;  according  to  some 
authorities  he  came  through  the  air  in  a  car  drawn  by  swans. 
During  his  visit  the  god  himself  played  the  cithara  and  danced 
without  ceasing  from  the  spring  equinox  to  the  rising  of  the 
Pleiades.  The  Boreads  were  hereditary  kings  of  the  island,  and 
were  likewise  keepers  of  the  sanctuary;  they  were  descendants 
of  Boreas  and  Chione.  Three  giant  brothers,  twelve  feet  high, 
performed  the  service  of  priests.  When  they  offered  the  sacri- 
fice and  sang  the  sacred  hymns  to  the  sound  of  the  cithara,  whole 
clouds  of  swans  came  from  the  Rhipasan  Mountains,  surrounded 
the  temple  and  settled  upon  it,  joining  in  the  sacred  song. 

Theopompus  (Philip  of  Macedon's  time)  has  given  us,  if 
we  may  trust  .ffilian's  account  ["  Varia,"  iii.  c  i8;  about 
200  A.D.],  a  remarkable  variation  of  the  Hyperborean  legend 
in  combination  with  others: 

Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  were  islands  surrounded  by  Oceanus;  only  that 
land  which  lay  outside  this  world  was  a  continent;  its  size  was  immense.  The 
animals  there  were  huge,  the  men  were  not  only  double  our  size,  but  lived 
twice  as  long  as  we.     Among  many  great  towns  there  were  two  in  particular 

1  Damastes  of  Sigeum  (about  450  B.C.,  and  contemporary  with  Herodotus) 
says  that  "  beyond  the  Scythians  dwell  the  Issedonians,  beyond  these  again  the 
Arimaspians,  and  beyond  them  are  the  Rhipaean  Mountains,  from  which  the 
north  wind  blows,  and  which  are  never  free  from  snow.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  mountains  are  the  Hyperboreans  who  spread  down  to  the  sea." 

-  Since  the  formi  of  the  sphere  was  the  most  perfect  according  to  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Pythagoreans. 
16 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

greater  than  the  rest,  and  with  no  resemblance  to  one  another;  they  were 
called  Machimos  (the  warlike)  and  Eusebes  (the  pious).  The  description  of 
the  latter's  peaceful  inhabitants  has  most  features  in  common  with  the  Hyper- 
borean legend.  The  warlike  inhabitants  of  Machimos,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
born  armed,  wage  war  continually,  and  oppress  their  neighbors,  so  that  this 
one  city  rules  over  many  peoples,  but  its  inhabitants  are  no  less  than  two  mil- 
lions. It  is  true  that  they  sometimes  die  of  disease,  but  that  happens  seldom, 
since  for  the  most  part  they  are  killed  in  war,  by  stones,  or  wood  [that  is, 
clubs]  for  they  are  invulnerable  to  iron.  They  have  such  superfluity  of  gold 
and  silver  that  with  them  gold  is  of  less  value  than  iron  is  with  us.  Once  in- 
deed they  made  an  expedition  to  our  island  [that  is,  Europe],  came  over  the 
Ocean  ten  millions  strong  and  arrived  at  the  land  of  the  Hyperboreans.  But 
when  they  learned  that  these  were  the  happy  ones  of  our  earth,  and  found 
their  mode  of  life  bad,  poverty-stricken  and  despicable,  they  did  not  think  it 
worth  while  to  proceed  farther. 

Among  them  dwell  men  called  Meropians,  in  many  great  cities.  On  the  bor- 
der of  their  country  is  a  place  which  bears  the  significant  name  Anostos  (with- 
out return),  and  resembles  a  gulf  ("  chiasma.")  There  reigns  there  neither 
darkness  nor  light,  but  a  veil  of  mist  of  a  dirty  red  color  lies  over  it.  Two 
streams  flow  about  this  place,  of  which  one  is  called  Hedone  (the  stream  of 
gladness),  the  other  Lype  (the  stream  of  sorrow),  and  by  the  banks  of  each 
stand  trees  of  the  size  of  a  great  plane-tree.  The  fruit  of  the  trees  by  the 
river  of  sorrow  has  the  effect  that  any  one  who  eats  of  it  sheds  so  many 
tears  that  for  the  rest  of  his  life  he  melts  away  in  tears  and  so  dies.  The 
other  trees  that  grow  by  the  river  of  gladness  bear  fruit  of  a  quite  different 
kind.  With  him  who  tastes  it  all  former  desires  come  to  rest;  even  what 
he  has  passionately  loved  passes  into  oblivion,  he  becomes  gradually  younger 
and  goes  once  more  through  the  previous  stages  of  his  existence  in  reverse 
order.  From  an  old  man  he  passes  to  the  prime  of  life,  becomes  a  youth,  a 
boy,  and  then  a  child,  and  with  that  he  is  used  up.  .Slian  adds:  "And  if  the 
Chionian's  [that  is,  Theopompus  of  Chios]  tale  appears  credible  to  any  one, 
then  he  may  be  believed,  but  to  me  he  seems  to  be  a  mythologist,  both  in  this 
and  in  other  things." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  regions  which  we  hear  of 
in  this  story,  with  the  Hyperboreans,  the  enormous  quantities 
of  gold,  the  gulf  without  return,  and  so  on,  were  imagined 
as  situated  beyond  the  sea  in  the  North;  and  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  warlike  people  of  Machimos  who  came  in  great 
hordes  southward  over  the  sea,  one  might  almost  be  tempted 
to  think  of  warlike  northerners,  who  were  slain  with  stones 
and  clubs,  but  not  with  iron,  perhaps  because  they  had  not  yet 
discovered  the  use  of  iron.^ 

1  It  was  moreover,  a  common  belief  in  mediaeval  times  that  people  who 
were  connected  with  the  other  world  could  not  be  killed  by  iron. 

17 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

The  legend  of  the  happy  Hyperboreans  in  the  North  has 
arisen  from  an  error  of  popular  etymology,  and  it  has  here 
been  treated  at  some  length  as  an  example  of  how  geographical 
myths  may  originate  and  develop.'  The  name  in  its  original 
form  was  certainly  the  designation  of  those  who  brought 
offerings  to  the  shrine  of  Apollo  at  Delphi  (perhaps  also  in 
Delos).  They  were  designated  as  "  perpheroi "  or  "  hyper- 
pheroi  "  (bringers  over),  which  again  in  certain  northern  Greek 
dialects  took  the  forms  of  "  hyper-phoroi  "  or  "  hyper-boroi ;  " 
this,  by  an  error,  became  connected  in  later  times  with 
"  Boreas,"  and  their  home  was  consequently  transferred  to  the 
North,  many  customs  of  the  worship  of  Apollo  being  transferred 
with  it  [see  O.  Crusius,  1890,  col.  2830].  This  gives  at  the 
same  time  a  natural  explanation  of  their  many  peculiarities, 
their  sanctity,  their  power  of  flight  and  the  arrow  (Apollo's  ar- 
row), their  ceremonial  feasts,  and  their  throwing  themselves 
from  a  certain  cliff,-  and  so  on,  all  of  which  is  derived  from  the 

^  "  Hyperboreans  "  are  first  mentioned  in  certain  poems  doubtfully  attrib- 
uted to  Hesiod,  but  which  can  scarcely  be  later  than  the  yth  century  B.C. 
The  full  development  of  the  myth  is  first  found  in  Pindar  (about  470  B.C.) ;  but 
his  Hyperboreans  cannot  be  considered  as  dwelling  especially  in  the  north; 
their  home,  to  which  "  the  strange  path  could  be  found  neither  by  sea  nor  by 
land,"  lay  rather  beyond  the  sea  in  the  far  west,  and  thither  came  Perseus 
borne  by  wings  on  his  way  to  Medusa. 

-  This  idea  can  be  traced  back  to  Delphi,  where  any  one  who  had  incurred 
the  god's  displeasure  was  thrown  from  a  cliff.  Something  similar  happened 
at  the  annual  festivals  of  Apollo  at  Leucas,  where  he  who  was  chosen  as  a 
victim  to  ward  off  evil  threw  himself  from  the  Leucadian  rock  into  the  sea. 
It  is  true  that  all  sorts  of  feathers  and  birds  were  fastened  to  the  victims  to 
act  as  a  parachute,  and  after  their  fall  they  were  rescued  by  boats  and  taken 
beyond  the  frontier,  as  bearers  of  a  curse.  According  to  some  it  was  the 
priests  themselves  who  made  this  leap. 

Among  the  Germanic  peoples,  if  we  may  believe  "  Gautrek's  Saga "  [cf.  J. 
Grimm,  1854,  p.  486;  Ranisch,  igoo,  p.  Ixxvii.  f.]  there  existed  the  custom  that 
the  elders  of  the  tribe,  when  tired  of  life,  used  to  cast  themselves  down  from  a 
high  crag  called  "  astternis  stapi "  (the  tribal  cliff),  so  as  to  die  without  sick- 
ness and  go  to  Odin.  As  a  reward  for  faithful  service  the  head  of  the  house 
took  his  thrall  with  him  in  the  leap,  so  that  he  too  might  come  thither.  After 
Skapnartungr  had  divided  the  inheritance,  he  and  his  wrife  were  conducted  to 
the  cliff  by  their  children,  and  they  went  joyfully  to  Odin.  This  reminds  one 
18 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

worship  of  Apollo.  Apollonius  of  Rhodes  (about  200  B.C.)  re- 
lates that  according  to  the  legends  of  the  Celts  (in  North  Italy?) 
amber  originated  from  the  tears  of  Apollo,  which  he  shed  by 
thousands  when  he  came  to  the  holy  people  of  the  Hyperboreans 
and  forsook  the  shining  heaven. 

When,  after  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  the  Greeks  became 
acquainted  with  the  mythical  world  of  India,  they  naturally  con- 
nected the  Indians'  legendary  country,  "  Uttara  Kuru,"  beyond 
the  Himalayas,  with  the  country  of  the  Hyperboreans.  "  This 
land  is  not  too  cold,  not  too  warm,  free  from  disease;  care  and 
sorrow  are  unknown  there ;  the  earth  is  without  dust  and  sweetly 
perfumed;  the  rivers  run  in  beds  of  gold,  and  instead  of  pebbles 
they  roll  down  pearls  and  precious  stones." 

The  mythical  singer  Aristeas  of  Proconnesus  (sixth  century?) 
— to  whom  was  attributed  the  poem  "  Arimaspeia " — is  said 
(according  to  Herodotus)  to  have  penetrated  into  the  country  of 
the  Scythians  as  far  as  the  northernmost  people,  the  Issedonians. 
The  latter  told  him  of  the  one-eyed,  long-haired  Arimaspians, 
who  lived  still  farther  north,  at  the  uttermost  end  of  the 
world,  before  the  cave  from  which  Boreas  rushes  forth.  On 
their  northern  border  dwelt  the  Griffins,  lion-like  monsters 
with  the  wings  and  beaks  of  eagles;'  they  were  the  guardians 
of     the     gold     which     the     earth     sends     forth     of     itself. 

strongly  of  the  happy  Hyperboreans.  Thietmar  of  Merseburg  (about  A.D. 
1000)  has  a  similar  legend  about  the  tribal  cliff.  It  is  probable  that  the  Ger- 
manic peoples  in  very  early  times,  like  other  peoples — the  Eskimo,  for  example 
— may  have  had  the  custom  of  taking  the  lives  of  the  old  and  useless,  or  that 
these  may  have  taken  their  own  lives,  by  throwing  themselves  into  the  sea,  for 
Instance,  as  occurs  among  the  Eskimo.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  very  doubt- 
ful that  there  should  have  been  such  tribal  cliffs;  and  it  is  more  probable  that 
this  legend  is  of  literary  origin  and  derived  from  the  cliffs  of  Delphi  and  Leu- 
cas,  which  through  the  Hyperborean  legend  came  down  to  the  Roman  authors 
Mela  and  Pliny,  and  from  them  was  handed  on  to  the  writers  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  to  the  scribe  of  the  "  Gautrek  Saga."  It  has  been  thought  that  many 
such  "  atte-stupar "  can  be  pointed  out  in  southern  Sweden,  but  they  seem 
all  to  be  of  recent  date,  and  may  have  been  suggested  by  this  saga. 

1  These  may  be  the  architectonical  figures  on  the  roof  of  the  temple  of  Del- 
phi, transferred  to  the  North  together  with  the  Hyperboreans.  At  Delphi 
they  were  no  doubt  regarded  as  guardians  of  the  temple's  treasures. 

19 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

But  still  farther  north,  as  far  as  the  sea,  were  the  Hyper- 
boreans. 

But  the  learned  Herodotus  (about  450  B.C.)  doubted  that 
the  Hyperboreans  dwelt  to  the  north  of  Boreas;  for,  said  he, 
if  there  are  people  north  of  the  north  wind,  then  there  must 
also  be  people  south  of  the  south  wind.  Neither  did  he  credit 
the  Scythian's  tales  about  goat-footed  people  '  and  Sleepers 
far  in  the  North.  Just  as  little  did  this  skeptic  believe  that  the 
air  of  Scythia  was  full  of  feathers  which  prevented  all  seeing 
and  moving;  it  was,  he  thought,  continuous  snowfall  that  the 
Sc}rthians  described  thus.  On  the  other  hand,  he  certainly  be- 
lieved in  the  Amazons,  though  whether  they  dwelt  in  the  North, 
as  later  authors  considered,  he  does  not  say. 

The  idea  of  the  Sleepers,  who  slept  for  six  months,  may 
very  probably  be  due  to  legendary  tales  of  the  long  northern 
winter-night,  the  length  of  which  was  fixed  at  six  months  by 
theoretical  speculations,  these  tales  being  confused  with  reports 
that  the  people  of  Scythia  slept  a  great  part  of  the  winter,  as 
even  to-day  the  peasants  are  said  to  do  in  certain  parts  of  Rus- 
sia, where  they  almost  hibernate.  Nor  must  the  possibility  be 
overlooked  of  stories  about  the  winter's  sleep  of  animals,  bears, 
for  example,  being  transferred  to  men. 

Later  learned  geographers,  in  spite  of  the  skepticism  of 
Herodotus,  occupied  themselves  in  assigning  to  the  Hyper- 
boreans a  dwelling-place  in  the  unknown.  The  founder  of 
scientific  geography,  Eratosthenes  of  Cyrene  (275-195  B.C.), 
declared  that  Herodotus's  method  of  disproving  the  existence 
of  the  Hyperboreans  was  ridiculous.     [Cf.  Strabo,  i.  61.] 

Even  so  long  as  five  hundred  years  after  Herodotus,  Pliny 
declared  the  Hyperboreans  to  be  a  historical  people,  whose 
existence  could  not  be  doubted;  and  on  the  maps  of  the  Middle 
Ages  we  always  find  them  in  the  most  northern  inhabited  regions, 
together  with  the  Amazons  and  other  peoples ;  we  even  find  the 
Hyperborean    Mountains    ("  Hyperborei    Montes ")    in    North- 

1  This   idea  has  been   explained  as  being  derived  from   stories  of  people 
dressed  in  breeches  of  goats'  skin. 
20 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

em  Europe  and  the  Hyperborean  Sea  ("  Oceanus  Hyper- 
boreus ")  to  the  north  of  them.  Adam  of  Bremen 
(eleventh  century)  thought  that  the  Scandinavians  were  the 
Hyperboreans. 

Archasological  finds  show  that  as  long  ago  as  the  Scandi- 
navian Bronze  Age,  or  before,  there  must  have  been  some  sort 
of  communication 
between  the  Medi- 
terranean and  the 
northern  lands.  One 
of  the  earliest  trade- 
routes  between  the 
Mediterranean  and 
the  Baltic  certainly 
went  from  the  Black 
Sea  up  the  navigable 
river  Borysthenes 
(Dnieper),  of  which 
early      mention      is 

made  by  the  Greeks,  thence  along  its  tributary  the  Bug  to  the 
Vistula,  and  down  the  latter  to  the  coast.  We  also  find  this 
route  in  common  use  in  later  antiquity.  When  we  first  meet 
with  the  Goths  in  history  they  are  established  at  both  ends  of  it, 
by  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula  and  of  the  Borysthenes.  The  Eruli, 
who  came  from  the  North,  are  also  mentioned  by  the  side  of  the 
Goths  on  the  Black  Sea.  What  the  wandering  nation  of  the 
Cimmerians  was  we  do  not  know,  but,  as  before  remarked 
(p.  14),  they  may  have  been  Cimbri  who  in  those  early  times 
had  migrated  to  the  northern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea  by  this 
very  route.  This  trade-route  was  well  known  in  its  details  to 
our  forefathers  in  Scandinavia,  which  likewise  points  to  an 
ancient  communication.  Somewhat  later  it  is  probable  that 
men  traveled  from  the  Baltic  up  the  Vistula  and  across  to  the 
March,  a  tributary  of  the  Danube,  and  so  either  down  this  river 
to  the  Black  Sea  or  overland  to  the  Adriatic.  A  similar  line  of 
communication  certainly  ran  between  the  North  Sea  and  the 

21 


Trade-routes  between  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  North 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Mediterranean  along  the  Elbe  to  the  Adriatic,  and  up  the 
Rhine  across  to  the  Rhone  and  down  this  to  the  coast,  or  across 
the  Alps  to  the  Po. 

But  very  early  there  was  also  communication  by  sea  along 
the  coasts  of  western  Europe  between  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  North.  This  is  shown  amongst  other  things  by  the  distri- 
bution, about  2000  B.C.,  of  cromlechs  over  Sicily,  Corsica, 
Portugal  and  the  north  of  Spain,  Brittany,  the  British  Isles,  the 


Cromlechs:  on  the  right,  in  Portugal  (after  Cartailhac);  on  the  left,  in 
Denmark   (after   S.   MUller) 

North  Sea  coast  of  Germany,  Denmark  and  southern  Scan- 
dinavia as  far  as  Bohuslan  [cf.  S.  Miiller,  igog,  p.  24,  f.],  and 
perhaps  farther.  Somewhat  later,  in  the  middle  of  the  second 
millennium  B.C.,  the  passage-graves  or  chambered  barrows 
followed  the  same  route  northward  from  the  Mediterranean. 
That  this  sea  communication  was  comparatively  active  in  those 
far-off  times  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  cromlechs,  which 
originated  in  the  grave-chambers  of  the  beginning  of  the 
Mycenaean  period  in  the  eastern  Mediterranean,  reached  Den- 
mark, by  this  much  longer  route  round  the  coast,  before 
the  single  graves,  which  were  an  older  form  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean countries,  but  which  spread  by  the  slower  route  overland, 
through  Central  Europe. 

That  as  far  back  as  the  Stone  Age  there  was  communication  by  one  way  or 
another,  perhaps  along  the  coast  between  Spain  and  the  shore  of  the  North 
Sea  or  the  Baltic,  appears  probable  from  the  fact  that  amber  beads  have  been 
found  in  the  Iberian  peninsula  containing  2  per  cent,  of  succinic  acid,  a  propor- 
tion which  is  taken  to  indicate  its  northern  (Baltic)  origin  [cf.  L.  Siret,  1909,  p, 
138]. 
22 


Ancient  Egyptian  ship;  from  a  grave  in  western 
Thebes  (after  R.  Lepsius) 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

On  account  of  the  many  intermediaries,  speaking  different 
languages,  through  which  it  passed,  the  information  which 
reached  the  Mediterranean  by  these  various  routes  was  very 
defective.  According  to  Herodotus  [iv.  24]  the  Scythians  on 
their  trading  journeys  to  the  bald-headed  Argippaeans  required 
no  fewer  than  seven  different  interpreters  to  enable  them 
to    barter   with    the 


peoples  on  the  way. 
Their  first  more 
direct  knowledge 
of  northern  and 
western  Europe 
must  certainly  have 
reached  the  Medi- 
terranean peoples 
through  the  tin  trade  and  the  amber  trade.  It  is  worth  re- 
marking that  it  was  precisely  these  two  articles,  representing 
two  powerful  sides  of  human  nature,  utility  and  the  love  of 
ornament,  that  were  to  be  of  such  great  importance  also  as  re- 
gards knowledge  of  the  North. 

We  do  not  know  when,  where,  or  how  tin  first  came  into 
use,  the  metal  which,  together  with  copper,  was  as  important 
in  the  Bronze  Age  as  iron  is  in  our  time.  In  Egypt  it  is 
found  in  the  oldest  pyramid-graves,  and  in  the  third  millennium 
B.C.  bronze  was  in  general  use  there,  though  we  know  not 
whence  the  tin  came  to  make  it.  Tin  ore  occurs  in  compara- 
tively few  places  on  the  earth,  and  if  China,  which  formed  a 
world  by  itself,  be  excluded,  the  only  places  where  we  know 
that  the  metal  was  obtained  in  ancient  times  are  north-west 
Spain,  the  Cassiterides  (probably  in  Brittany)  and  Cornwall,' 
which  still  possesses  rich  deposits;  and  as  far  as  we  can 
trace  history  back,  the  civilized  peoples  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Orient  obtained  their  tin  from  western  Europe.^  If 
the  first  tin  in  Egypt  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  also 

^  Strabo    [iii.    147]    and   Diodorus    [v.   38],   following   Posidonius,   mention 
these  three  districts  as  the  places  where  tin  was  found. 

~  In  the  three  districts  named  tin  oxide  (SnO„)  occurs  in  lodes  in  the  solid 

23 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

came  from  there,  the  civilization  of  western  Europe,  implied 
by  regular  working  of  mines,  would  be  given  a  venerable  age 
which  could  almost  rival  the  oldest  civilization  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. But  this  is  difficult  to  believe,  as  we  should  expect  to 
find  traces  of  this  early  connection  with  Egypt  along  the  trade- 
routes  between  that  country  and  the  place  of  origin  of  the  tin; 
and  no  archaeological  evidence  to  prove  this  is  at  present 
forthcoming.  ^ 

This  possibility  is  nevertheless  not  wholly  excluded:  finds  of  beads  of 
northern  (?)  amber  in  Egyptian  graves  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty  (about  3500  B.C.) 
may  point  to  ancient  unknown  communication  with  the  farthest  parts  of  Eu- 
rope. In  Spain,  too,  neolithic  objects  have  been  found,  of  ivory  and  other 
substances,  which  may  have  come  from  Egypt  [cf.  L.  Siret,  igog].  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  earliest  notices  of  tin  in  literature  mention  it  as  coming  from  the 
uttermost  limits  of  Europe.  In  his  lament  over  Tyre  the  prophet  Ezekiel  says 
[xxviii  12].  "Tarshish  was  thy  merchant  by  reason  of  the  multitude  of  all 
kinds  of  riches;  with  silver,  iron,  tin,  and  lead,  they  traded  in  thy  fairs." 
Herodotus  [iii.  115]  says  that  it  came  from  the  Cassiterides.  As  Tarsis  was 
the  starting-point  of  the  tin-trade  with  the  Cassiterides,-  these  two  state- 
ments are  in  agreement. 

Figures  and  thin  rods  of  tin  have  been  found  in  association  with  stone  im- 
plements on  the  sites  of  pile-dwellings  in  Switzerland.  Tin  rings  have  also 
been  found  at  Hallstatt.     In  barrows  (of  the  Bronze  Age?)  in  the  island  of 

rock,  as  well  as  (sometimes  in  conjunction  with  gold  and  silver)  in  the  gravel 
or  sand  of  streams,  and  it  was  certainly  in  the  latter  form  that  tin  was  first 
extracted,  after  its  discovery  by  some  accident  or  other. 

1  It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  the  first  bronze,  like  silk,  may  have  reached 
the  people  of  the  Orient  and  Egypt  from  China,  without  their  knowing  from 
whence  it  was  originally  derived.  Bronze  articles  have  been  found  at  Troy 
which  may  indicate  a  connection  with  China,  and  it  has  even  been  asserted 
that  Chinese  characters  have  been  found  there  [cf.  Schliemann,  1881,  p.  5ig]. 
Tin  is  also  known  to  occur  in  Persia,  but  it  has  not  been  ascertained  that  it 
was  worked  there  in  ancient  times.  Strabo  [xv.  724]  says,  however,  that  the 
Drangae  in  Drangiana,  near  the  Indus,  "  suffer  from  want  of  wine,  but  tin  oc- 
curs with  them."  Tin  is  found  in  the  Fichtelgebirge,  and  it  has  been  thought 
possible  to  identify  pre  historic  tin  mines  there  [cf.  O.  Schrader,  1901,  article 
"Zinn"]. 

=  The  Phoenicians'  "Tarsis"  (or  Tarshish),  rich  in  silver,  called  by  the 
Greeks  "  Tartessos,"  was  on  the  south-west  coast  of  Spain  between  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  and  the  Guardiana.  About  iioo  B.C.  Tyre  established  there  the 
colony  "Gadir"  (i.e.,  "fortress"),  called  by  the  Greeks  "  Gadeira,"  and  by 
the  Romans  "Gades"  (now  Cadiz). 
24 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

Anrum,  on  the  west  coast  of  Sleswick,  there  were  found  a  dagger  or  arrow- 
head and  several  other  objects  of  tin,  besides  a  lump  of  the  metal,  and  in 
Denmark  it  is  known  that  tin  was  used  for  ornament  on  oak  chests  of  the 
earliest  Bronze  Age,  which  again  points  to  coastal  traffic  with  the  south-west. 

In  the  Iliad  tin  is  spoken  of  as  a  rare  and  costly  metal,  used 
for  the  decoration  of  weapons,  and  it  appears  that  arms  were  then 
made  of  copper,  bronze  not  being  yet  in  general  use,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  later  time  of  the  Odyssey.  But  in  the  excavations  at 
Troy,  curiously  enough,  bronze  objects  were  found  immediately 
above  the  neolithic  strata,  which  would  seem  to  show  that  the 
Bronze  Age  reached  the  Greeks  from  Egypt  without  any  inter- 
vening copper  age. 

The  Homeric  songs  do  not  allude  to  tin  as  a  Phoenician 
commodity,  like  amber.  This  may  mean  that  the  Greeks,  even 
in  the  earliest  times,  obtained  it  through  their  own  commercial 
relations  with  Gaul,  without  employing  the  Phoenicians  as 
middlemen. 

Possibly  the  Greek  word  for  tin,  "  kassiteros,"  and  the 
name  of  the  tin-islands,  "  Kassiterides,"  themselves  point  to 
this  direct  connection.  The  same  word  is  also  found  in 
Sanscrit,  "  kastira "  and  in  Arabic,  "  qazdir."  Professor 
Alf  Torp  thinks  that  the  word  both  in  Greek  and  in  Sanscrit 
"  must  be  borrowed  from  somewhere,  but  whence  or  when 
"  is  not  known.  '  Kassiteros,'  of  course,  occurs  as  early  as 
"  Homer,  '  kastira '  is  in  Indian  literature  much  later,  but  as 
"  far  as  that  goes  it  may  well  be  old  in  Sanscrit.  I  do  not 
"  know  of  any  Celtic  word  one  could  think  of ;  a  '  cassitir ' 
"  (woodland)  is  hardly  to  the  point ;  it  is  true  that  '  tir ' 
"  means  '  land,'  but  no  other  '  cass '  is  known  to  me  except 
"one  that  means  'hair'"  (in  a  letter  of  November  9,  1909). 
We  may  therefore  look  upon  it  as  certain  that  "  kassiteros  " 
is  not  an  original  Greek  word;  it  must  in  all  probability 
have  come  from  the  country  whence  the  Greeks  first  obtained 
tin  (analogous  cases  are  the  name  of  copper  from  the  island 
of  Cyprus,  that  of  bronze  from  Brundisium,  etc.).     That  this 

25 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

country  was  India,  as  some  have  thought,  is  improbable, 
since  it  is  stated  in  the  "  Periplus  Maris  Erythraei "  [xUx.], 
confirmed  by  PHny  [xxxiv.  163],  that  tin  was  imported  into 
India  from  Alexandria  in  exchange  for  ivory,  precious  stones 
and  perfumes;  we  must  therefore  suppose  that  the  name 
reached  India  with  the  tin  from  the  Greeks,  and  not  vice 
versa.  It  is  very  possible  that  the  word  consists  of  two 
parts,  of  which  the  second  "  -teros "  may  be  connected  with 
the  Celtic  word  "  tir "  for  land  (Latin  "terra").  The  first 
part,  "  kassi,"  occurs  in  many  Celtic  words  and  names. 
Ptolemy  [ii.  8]  mentions  in  Gaul,  in  or  near  Brittany: 
"  Bidu-kasioi,"  "  Uenelio-kasioi,"  "  Tri-kasioi,"  and  "  Uadi- 
kasioi."  As  mentioned  by  Reinach  [1892,  p.  278],  there  was 
a  people  in  Brittany  called  "  Cassi "  (a  British  king,  "  Cassi- 
vellaunos,"  an  Arvernian  chief,  "  Ver-cassi-vellaunos,"  etc.). 
It  may  be  supposed  that  the  country  was  named  after  these 
people,  or  was  in  some  other  way  referred  to  by  such  a 
word  and  called  "  Kassi-tir."  In  this  case  the  Cassiterides  might 
be  sought  for  in  Brittany,  and  this  agrees  with  what  we  have 
arrived  at  in  another  way.  But  this  would  entail  the  as- 
sumption that  the  Celts  were  already  in  Gaul  at  the  time  of  the 
Iliad. 

Professor  Alf  Torp  has  called  attention  to  the  remarkable 
circumstance  that  "  the  Cymric  word  for  tin,  *  ystaen,' 
"  resembles  '  stannum,'  which  cannot  be  genuine  Latin.  I  am 
"  inclined  to  think  that  both  words  are  derived  from  an 
"  Iberian  word ;  the  Romans  would  in  that  case  have  got  it 
"  from  Galicia  and  the  Cymri  doubtless  from  a  primitive 
"  Iberian  population  in  the  British  Isles.  In  some  way  or 
"  other  our  word  '  tin '  must  be  connected  with  this  word, 
"  though  the  '  i '  is  curious  in  the  face  of  the  Cymric  '  a '  " 
(letter  of  November  9,  1909).  In  connection  with  this 
hypothesis  of  Professor  Torp,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  notice 
that  in  the  tin  district  of  Morbihan  in  Brittany,  by  the 
mouth  of  the  Vilaine,  is  "  Penestin,"  where  the  deposits  still 
contain  much  tin,  and  the  name  of  which  must  come  from  the 
26 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

Celtic  "  pen  "  (  =  head,  cape)  and  "  estein  "  (  =  tin).'  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  the  Latin  "  stannum  "  was  derived  from  Brittany 
rather  than  from  Galicia. 

In  ancient  Egyptian  there  is  no  word  for  tin ;  as  in  early  Latin 
it  is  described  as  white  lead  (plumbum  album),  which  may  point 
to  a  common  western  origin  for  these  two  metals. 

There  has  been  great  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  where  the  Cas- 
siterides  of  the  Greeks  were  to  be  found.  Herodotus  [iii.  115] 
did  not  know  where  they  were :  "  in  spite  of  all  his  trouble, 
"  he  had  not  been  able  to  learn  from  any  eye-witness  what  the 
"  sea  is  like  in  that  region  [that  is,  on  the  north  side]  of  Europe. 
"  But  it  is  certain  that  tin  comes  from  the  uttermost  end,  as 
"  also  amber."  Posidonius  mentioned  the  islands  as  lying 
between  Spain  and  Britain  (see  above,  p.  23.)  Strabo  says 
[iii.  175]: 

The  Cassiterides  are  ten,  and  lie  near  to  one  another,  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea  northwards  from  the  harbor  of  the  Artabri  [Galicia].  One  of  them  is 
unoccupied,  while  the  others  are  inhabited  by  people  in  black  cloaks,  with  the 
robe  fastened  on  the  breast  and  reaching  down  to  their  feet,  who  wander 
about  with  staves  in  their  hands  like  the  Furies  in  tragedy.  They  live  for  the 
most  part  as  herdsmen  on  their  cattle;  but  as  they  also  have  mines  of  tin  and 
lead  they  barter  these  metals  and  hides  for  pottery,  salt,  and  articles  of  copper 
with  the  merchants.  Formerly  the  Phoenicians  alone  carried  on  this  trade 
from  Gadir  and  kept  the  sea  route  secret  from  every  one  else;  but  as  the 
Romans  once  sailed  in  pursuit  of  one  of  their  vessels  with  the  object  of  find- 
ing out  the  position  of  their  markets,  the  captain  intentionally  allowed  his 
ship  to  be  stranded  on  a  sandbank  and  brought  the  same  destruction  upon  his 
pursuers;  but  he  saved  himself  from  the  wreck,  and  was  compensated  by  the 
State  for  the  value  of  his  loss.  Nevertheless  the  Romans  discovered  the  sea 
route  after  repeated  attempts,  and  when  Publius  Crassus  [under  Caesar]  had 
also  traversed  it  he  saw  the  metals  dug  out  from  near  the  surface  and  that 
the  inhabitants  were  peaceful,  and  he  proved  this  sea  passage  to  be  practic- 
able, if  one  wished  to  make  it,  although  it  is  longer  ^  than  that  which  divides 
Britain  [from  the  continent]. 

^  Cf.  S.  Reinach,  1892,  p.  277.  In  Breton  tin  is  called  "  sten,"  a  name  which 
is  certainly  not  borrowed  from  the  Latin  "stannum,"  as  Reinach  thinks;  ac- 
cording to  the  above-quoted  opinion  of  Professor  Torp  we  must  believe  that 
the  borrowing  has  been  in  the  opposite  direction. 

"  The  explanation  of  this  statement  may  be  that  Crassus  sailed  to  the  Cassi- 
terides from  the  mouth  of  the  Garonne,  up  which  river  the  route  ran  to 
Narbo.  What  is  alluded  to  here  would  then  be  the  sea  passage  from  the 
Garonne. 

27 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


It  is  unlikely  that  the  Cassiterides  were  Cornwall,  as  has 
been  commonly  supposed,  since  this  peninsula  can  with  diffi- 
culty be  regarded  as  a  group  of  islands;  moreover  this  would 
not  agree  with  the  descriptions  which  always  mention  them  as 

_  separate  from  Britain, 
and  usually  farther 
south.  The  Scilly  Isles, 
lying  far  out  in  the 
sea,  where  tin  has  never 
been  worked  to  any 
great  extent,  and  whose 
waters  are  dangerous  to 
navigate,  are  out  of  the 
question.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  may  almost  be 
regarded  as  certain  that 
the  Cassiterides  are  the 
same  as  the  "  CEstrym- 
nides"  (see  below), 
and  these  must  be 
looked  for  on  the  coast 
of  Gaul.  Furthermore 
tin  is  mentioned  as 
"  Celtic "  by  several 
Greek  authorities ;  in 
the  "  Mirabiles  auscul- 
tationes "  of  Aristotle 
or  Pseud  o-Aristotle 
[i.  834,  A.  6]  it  is  so  called,  and  Ephorus  (about  340  B.C.)  speaks 
[in  Scymnus  of  Chios]  of  Tartessus  [i.e.,  Gadir],  "the  famous 
city,"  as  "rich  in  alluvial  tin  from  Celtica  [Gaul],  in  gold,  as 
also  in  copper."  ^  It  may  further  be  mentioned  that  Mela  re- 
ferred    to     the     Cassiterides  2     as     "  Celtican,"     which     would 

^  Pliny   [xxxiv.   162]   mentions  the  tinning  of  copper  objects  as  a  Gaulish 
invention. 

-  Strabo's  repeated  statement  [ii.  120  and  175]  that  the  Cassiterides  lay  north 
28 


^p^  ^"[4^ 

? 

X/^^*-**^?^! 

N   f 

kL 

ff 

-- 

Places  where  tin  is  found  in  western  Europe 
(marked  with  crosses),  and  routes  of  the  tin- 
trade  in  ancient  times  [after  L.  Siret,  1908] 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

mean  that  they  belonged  to  the  north-west  coast  of  Spain, 
unless  it  is  confused  with  Celtic;  and  in  his  description 
of    the    islands    of    Europe,    going    from    south    to    north,    he 

A 

puts  them  immediately  before  "  Sena,"  or  the  He  de 
Seins  at  the  western  extremity  of  Brittany,  which  means  in  any 
case  that  they  would  be  to  the  south  of  that  island.  Everything 
points  to  the  islands  being  situated  on  the  south  coast 
of  Brittany,  and  there  is  much  in  favor  of  Louis  Siret's  assump- 
tion  [1908]  that  they  are  the  islands  of  Morbihan  ("  Les  lies  du 
Morbraz"),  west  of  the  mouth  of  the  Loire,  exactly 
where  "  Penestin  "  is  situated.  This  agrees  very  well,  as  we 
shall  see  later,  with  the  description  of  Himilco's  voyage  to 
the  CEstrymnides.  The  free  alluvial  deposits  along  the  shore  in 
this  district,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Vilaine,  still  contain  a 
good  deal  of  tin,  together  with  gold  and  other  precious  metals; 
but  in  those  distant  times  they  may  have  been  very  rich  in  tin, 
and  as  they  lie  on  the  very  seashore  they  were  naturally  dis- 
covered early  and  became  the  most  important  source  of  tin  until 
they  were  partly  exhausted.  In  the  meantime  the  rich 
tin  deposits  of  Cornwall  had  begun  to  be  utilized,  and  they  be- 
came in  turn  the  most  important,  while  the  Cassiterides  were 
gradually  forgotten. 

Diodorus  [v.  22]  alludes  to  the  tin  trade  in  the  following  terms:  "On  that 
promontory  of  Prettanike  [Britain]  which  is  called  '  Belerion,'  the  inhabitants 
are  very  hospitable,  and  they  have  become  civilized  by  intercourse  with  for- 
eign merchants.  They  produce  tin,  by  actively  working  the  land  which  con- 
tains it.  This  is  rocky  and  contains  veins  of  earth  and  by  working  and 
smelting  the  products  they  obtain  pure  metal.  This  they  make  into  the  form 
of  knuckle-bones  and  bring  it  to  an  island  which  lies  off  the  coast  of  Britain 
and  is  called  '  Ictis.'  For  when  the  intervening  space  becomes  dry  at  ebb  tide 
they  bring  a  quantity  of  tin  to  the  island  in  wagons.     A  curious  thing  hap- 

of  the  land  of  the  Artabri  [north-west  Spain]  also  points  decisively  to  Brit- 
tany. The  idea  must  be  derived  from  Eratosthenes,  who  borrowed  from 
Pytheas,  and  the  latter  placed  Cabaeum,  the  promontory  of  Brittany,  farther 
west  than  Cape  Finisterre.  Diodorus  [v.  38]  says  that  the  islands  lay  oppo- 
site Iberia  in  the  Ocean.  That  they  are  always  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  Artabri  or  north-west  Spain  shows  that  the  voyage  to  them  was  made 
from  that  country. 

29 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

pens  with  the  islands  near  the  coast  between  Europe  and  Britain;  for  when 
the  dividing  strait  is  filled  at  high  water  they  appear  as  islands,  but  when  the 
sea  recedes  at  the  ebb  and  leaves  a  great  space  of  dry  land,  they  look  like  part 
of  the  mainland.  Here  the  merchants  buy  it  from  the  natives  and  bring  it 
across  to  Gaul;  but  finally  they  journey  on  foot  through  Gaul,  and  bring  the 
goods  on  horses  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Rhone."  In  another  place  [v.  38] 
he  says  that  the  tin  is  conveyed  on  horseback  to  Massalia  and  to  the  Roman 
commercial  town  of  Narbo. 

Bunbury  [1883,  ii.  p.  197]  thinks  that  "  this  characteristic  account  leaves  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  Ictis  was  St.  Michael's  Mount  in  Cornwall  (Belerion), 
to  v/hich  the  description  precisely  answers,  and  which  contains  a  small  port 
such  as  would  have  been  well  suited  to  ancient  traders."  The  description  de- 
cidedly does  not  fit,  as  some  have  thought,  the  island  of  Vectis  (Wight) ; 
moreover  the  tin  would  in  any  case  have  had  to  be  brought  to  the  latter  by 
sea  from  Cornwall,  and  not  in  wagons.  It  is,  however,  also  possible  that  we 
have  here  some  confusion  with  the  original  tin  district  in  Brittany,  where  such 
places  as  Ictis,  with  the  change  between  flood  and  ebb  tide,  are  well  known, 
from  Caesar's  description  among  others.  But  as  Diodorus  did  not  know  the 
tin  mines  of  Brittany,  which  in  his  time  had  lost  their  importance,  and  had 
heard  of  tin  mines  in  Belerion,  he  transferred  to  the  latter  the  whole  descrip- 
tion which  he  found  in  earlier  writers.  This  supposition  may  be  confirmed  by 
Pliny's  statement  [Hist.  Nat.  iv.  16,  104]:  "The  historian  Timaeus  says  that 
in  six  days'  sailing  inwards  from  Britain  the  island  of  'Mictis'  is  reached,  in 
which  white  lead  (tin)  occurs.  Thither  the  Britons  sail  in  vessels  of  wicker- 
work,  covered  with  hides."  Originally  the  passage  doubtless  read  "  insulam 
Ictis,"  which  by  transference  of  the  "  m "  became  "  insula  Mictis,"  and  this 
again  has  been  amended  to  "  insulam  Mictis."  It  is  impossible  to  identify  the 
description  with  Vectis,  which  moreover  has  just  been  mentioned  by  Pliny, 
and  it  is  also  difficult  to  understand  how  it  could  be  a  place  in  Cornwall,  but 
it  is  consistent  with  the  tin  district  of  Brittany. 

We  do  not  know  how  or  at  what  period  this  tin  industry 
first  developed.  Perhaps  it  was  as  early  as  the  end  of  the 
neolithic  period;  but  it  is  improbable  that  it  should  have  been 
independently  developed  by  the  Iberian  aborigines  who  lived 
in  the  tin  districts  of  Iberia,  and  doubtless  also  of  Brittany;  it 
is  far  more  likely  to  be  due  to  communication  with  the  Medi- 
terranean through  a  seafaring,  commercial  people,  and  we 
know  of  none  other  than  the  Phoenicians.  How  early  they 
began  their  widespread  commerce  and  industry  is  unknown; 
but  they  must  have  reached  this  part  of  the  world  long  before 
Gadir  was  founded  by  the  Tyrians  about  iioo  B.C.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  in  their  search  for  gold  and  silver  they  discovered 
these  deposits  of  tin  and  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of  them. 
30 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

As  already  remarked,  there  was  as  early  as  2000  B.C.  a  con- 
tinuous communication  by  sea  along  the  coasts  of  west- 
em  Europe,  and  it  is  probable  that  there  arose  at  a  very  early 
time  efficient  navigators  on  the  coasts  of  northern  Spain  and 
Brittany,  just  those  districts  which  are  rich  in  tin,  where  there 
are  many  good  harbors.  For  a  long  time  the  tin  trade  was  car- 
ried on  by  sea,  southward  along  the  coast  to  Tarsis  in 
southern  Spain;  but  by  degrees  an  overland  trade-route  also 
came  into  use,  going  up  the  Loire  and  down  the  Rhone  to  the 
Mediterranean.  This  route  became  known  to  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Phocaean  colony  Massalia  was  founded  upon  it  about 
600  B.C.;  later  the  Greek  colony  of  Corbilo  was  possibly 
founded  at  its  other  extremity,  by  the  mouth  of  the  Loire  (?). 
Later  still  another  trade-route  ran  along  the  Garonne  overland 
to  the  Roman  Narbo  (Narbonne).  On  the  development  of  the 
Cornish  tin  industry,  the  same  routes  by  sea  and  land  continued 
to  be  used.  Thus  it  was  that  the  tin  trade  furnished  one  of  the 
first  and  most  important  steps  in  the  path  of  the  exploration  of 
the  North. 

When  Phaethon  one  day  had  persuaded  his  father  Helios 
to  let  him  drive  the  chariot  of  the  sun  across  the  sky,  the  horses 
ran  away  with  him  and  he  first  came  too  near  the  vault  of 
heaven  and  set  fire  to  it,  so  that  the  Milky  Way  was  formed; 
then  he  approached  too  near  the  earth,  set  the  mountains  on 
fire,  dried  up  rivers  and  lakes,  burned  up  the  Sahara,  scorched 
the  negroes  black,  until,  to  avoid  greater  disasters  in  his  wild 
career,  Zeus  struck  him  down  with  his  thunderbolt  into  the 
river  Eridanus.  His  sisters,  the  daughters  of  the  sun,  wept 
so  much  over  him  that  the  gods  in  pity  changed  them  into  pop- 
lars, and  their  tears  then  flowed  every  year  as  amber  on  the 
river's  banks.  "  For  this  reason  amber  came  to  be  called  '  elec- 
tron,' because  the  sun  has  the  name  of  '  Elector.'  "  In  this  way 
the  Greeks,  in  their  poetry,  thought  that  amber  was  formed. 
The  mythical  river  Eridanus,  which  no  doubt  was  originally  in 
the  north  (cf.  Herodotus),  was  later  identified  sometimes  with 
the  Rhone,  sometimes  with  the  Po.  Herodotus  [iii.  115]  says 
of  northern  Europe :      "  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  a  river 

31 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


"  which  the  barbarians  call  Eridanus,  and  which  flows  into  the 
"  sea  to  the  northward,  from  whence  amber  may  come.  .  .  . 
"  For  in  the  first  place  the  name  Eridanus  itself  shows  that  it 
"is  Hellenic  and  not  barbarian,  and  that  it  has  been  invented 
"  by  some  poet  or  other  " ;  and  in  the  second,  he  was  not  able 
to  find  any  eye-witness  who  could  tell  him  about  it  (cf.  p.  27)  ; 
but  in  any  case  he  thought  that  amber  as  well  as  tin  came  from 
the  uttermost  limits  of  Europe. 

The    most    important    sources    of    amber    in    Europe    are 
the  southern  coast  of  the  Baltic,  especially  Samland,  and  the 

west  coast  of  Jut- 
land with  the  North 
Frisian  islands.  It 
is  also  found  in 
small  quantities  in 
many  places  in 
western  and  cen- 
tral Europe,  on  the 
Adriatic,  in  Sicily, 
in  South  Africa, 
Burmah,  the  west 
coast  of  America, 
etc.  Northern 
amber,  from  the 
Baltic  and  the  North  Sea,  is  distinguished  from  other  kinds 
that  have  been  investigated,  by  the  comparatively  large  pro- 
portion of  succinic  acid  it  contains,  and  it  seems  as  though 
almost  all  that  was  used  in  early  antiquity  in  the  Mediterranean 
countries  and  in  Eg3T3t  was  derived  from  the  north.  Along  the 
coasts  of  the  Baltic  and  North  Sea  the  amber  is  washed  by  the 
waves  from  the  loose  strata  of  the  sea-bottom  and  thrown  up 
on  the  beach.  When  these  washed-up  lumps  were  found  by 
the  fishers  and  hunters  of  early  times  they  naturally  attracted 
them  by  their  brilliance  and  color  and  by  the  facility  with 
which  they  could  be  cut.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
amber  was  used  as  early  as  the  Stone  Age  for  amulets  and 
32 


w. 

-  ^^ 

't 

f 

^'( 

1 

;/ 

^ 

/it 

W^ 

^  '1 

^;^ 

t  \ 

u 

1^ 

t<*' 

^•<^ 

m^ 

it     " 

T/^ 

^"^r^ 

wr^ 

■r\  ^t^ 

<* 

] 

1  t  "^ 

^  <. 

^ 

^r^ 

Places  where  Amber  is  found  (marked  with 
crosses) 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

ornaments  by  the  people  on  the  Bahic  and  North  Seas,  and 
spread  from  thence  over  the  whole  of  the  North.  In  those 
distant  times  articles  of  amber  were  still  rare  in  the  South; 
but  in  the  Bronze  Age,  in  proportion  as  gold  and  bronze  reach 
the  north,  they  become  rarer  there,  but  more  numerous  farther 
south.  In  the  passage-graves  of  Mycenae  (fourteenth  to  twelfth 
centuries  B.C.)  there  are  many  of  them,  as  also  in  Sparta  at 
the  time  of  the  Dorian  migration  (twelfth  to  tenth  centuries 
B.C.;  of.  p.  14).  It  is  evident  that  amber  was  the  medium  of 
exchange  wherewith  the  people  of  the  North  bought  the  precious 
metals  from  the  South,  and  in  this  way  it  comes  that  the  two 
classes  of  archaeological  finds  have  changed  their  localities.  The 
neolithic  ornaments  of  amber  at  Corinth,  already  referred 
to,  the  amber  beads  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty  in  Egypt,  and 
those  of  the  neolithic  period  in  Spain,  show,  however,  if  they 
are  northern,  that  this  connection  between  South  and  North 
goes  back  a  very  long  way.  But  the  Greek  tribes  among  whom 
the  "  Iliad  "  originated  do  not  appear  to  have  known  amber,  as  it 
is  not  mentioned  in  the  poem,  and  it  is  first  named  in  the  more 
recent  portions  of  the  "  Odyssey  "  (put  into  writing  in  the  eighth 
century  B.C.).  Among  the  jewels  which  the  Phoenician 
merchant  offered  to  the  Queen  of  Syria  was  "the  golden 
"necklace  hung  with  pieces  of  amber"  [Od.  xv.  460].  We 
must  therefore  believe  that  the  Phoenicians  were  the  mid- 
dlemen from  whom  the  Greeks  obtained  it  at  that  time.  But  it 
was  not  so  much  esteemed  by  the  Greeks  of  the  classical  period 
as  it  became  later,  and  they  rejected  it  in  their  art  industries, 
for  which  reason  it  is  seldom  mentioned  by  Greek  authors. 
Thales  of  Miletus  (600  B.C.)  discovered  that  when  rubbed  it 
attracted  other  bodies,  and  from  this  important  discovery 
made  so  long  ago  has  sprung  the  knowledge  of  that  force  which 
dominates  our  time,  and  which  has  been  named  from  the  Greek 
word  for  amber,  "  electron." 

Among  the  Romans  of  the  Empire  this  substance  was  so 
highly  prized  that  Pliny  tells  us  [xxxvii.,  chap.  12]  that  "a 
"  human  likeness  made  of  it,  however  small,  exceeds  the  price 

33 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

"  of  a  healthy  living  person."  This  was  both  on  account  of  its 
beauty  and  of  its  occult  properties;  when  worn  as  an  amulet  it 
was  able  to  ward  off  secret  poisons,  sorcery  and  other  evils.  It 
therefore  naturally  became  an  article  that  was  in  great  demand, 
and  for  which  merchants  made  long  voyages. 

It  has  been  thought  that  the  North  Sea  amber  came  into  the 
southern  market  before  that  of  the  Baltic,  and  as  the  Eridanus 
of  the  myth  was  sometimes  taken  for  the  Rhone  and  sometimes 
for  the  Po,  it  was  believed  that  in  early  times  amber  was  car- 
ried up  the  Rhine  and  across  to  both  these  rivers,  later  also  up 
the  Elbe  to  the  Adriatic  [cf.  Schrader,  1901,  "Bernstein"].  It 
was  thought  that  the  archaeological  finds  also  favored  this 
theory;  but  it  must  still  be  regarded  as  doubtful,  and  it  is 
scarcely  probable  that  the  Phoenicians  obtained  it  from  the 
mouths  of  the  Rhone  and  the  Po,  while  they  may  have  brought 
it  by  sea  at  an  early  period.  By  what  routes  amber  was  dis- 
tributed in  the  earliest  times  is  still  unknown. 

Even  though  the  Phoenicians  were  for  the  most  part  a 
commercial  and  industrial  people,  who  were  not  specially 
interested  in  scientific  research,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  by 
their  distant  voyages  they  contributed  much  geographical 
knowledge  to  their  age,  and  in  many  ways  they  influenced- 
Greek  geography,  especially  through  Miletus,  which  from  the 
beginning  was  partly  a  Phoenician  colony,  and  where  the  first 
Greek  school  of  geographers,  the  Ionian  school,  developed. 
Thales  of  Miletus  was  himself  probably  a  Semite.  How  far 
they  attained  on  their  voyages  is  unknown.  Hitherto  no  cer- 
tain relics  of  Phoenician  colonies  have  been  found  along  the 
coasts  of  western  Europe  farther  north  than  south-west  Spain 
(Tarsis),  and  there  is  no  historically  certain  foundation  for  the 
supposition  that  these  seafaring  merchants  of  antiquity,  the 
Phoenicians,  Carthaginians  and  Gaditanians,  on  their  voyages  be- 
yond the  Pillars  of  Hercules  and  northwards  along  the  coasts 
of  western  Europe,  should  have  penetrated  beyond  the  tin 
country  and  as  far  as  the  waters  of  northern  Europe,  even  to 
Scandinavia  and  the  Baltic,  whence  they  themselves  might 
34 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

have  brought  amber.*  But  a  hypothesis  of  this  sort  cannot  be 
disproved,  and  is  by  no  means  improbable.  Everything  points 
to  the  Phoenicians  having  been  uncommonly  capable  seamen 
with  good  and  swift-sailing  ships;  and  a  seafaring  people  who 
achieved  the  far  more  difficult  enterprise  of  circumnavigating 
Africa,  and  of  sailing  southward  along  its  west  coast  with 
whole  fleets  to  found  colonies,  cannot  have  found  it  impossible 
to  sail  along  the  west  and  north  coast  of  Europe,  where  there 
are  plenty  of  natural  harbors.  It  would  then  be  natural  for 
them  to  try  to  reach 
the  North  Sea  and  the 
Baltic,  if  they  ex- 
pected to  find  the 
precious  amber  there, 
and  on  this  point  they 
certainly  had  infor- 
mation from  the  mer- 
chants who  brought 
it  either  by  land  or  by 
sea.  It  has  already 
been  remarked  that 
it    is    first    mentioned 


commerce. 


Phoenician  warship,  according  to  an  Assyrian 
representation 

in    history    as    a  Phoenician    article    of 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  Phoenicians  at  an 


'  George  Mair  [1899,  p.  20,  f.]  has  allowed  himself  to  be  led  astray  by  Sven 
Nilsson's  fanciful  pictures  [1862,  1865]  into  regarding  it  as  a  historical  fact 
that  the  Phoenicians  had  permanent  colonies  in  Skane  and  regular  communi- 
cation with  Scandinavia,  even  so  far  north  as  the  Lofoten  isles,  whose  rich 
fisheries  are  supposed  to  have  attracted  them. 

-  In  a  translation  of  the  cuneiform  inscription  on  the  obelisk  of  the  Assy- 
rian king  Asumasirabal  (885-860  B.C.)  the  Assyriologist  J.  Oppert  has  the 
following  remarkable  passage,  which  is  taken  as  referring  to  this  king's 
great  predecessor  Tiglath  Pileser  I.,  of  about  iioo  B.C.:  "In  the  seas  of  the 
tradewinds  his  fleets  fished  for  pearls,  in  the  seas  where  the  pole-star  stands  in 
the  zenith  they  fished  for  the  saffron  which  attracts."  [Cf.  Schweiger-Ler- 
chenfeld,  1898,  p.  141.]  Oppert  has  since  altered  the  latter  part  of  his  transla- 
tion to  "  fished  for  that  which  looks  like  copper."  Both  interpretations  might 
mean  amber,  and  if  the  translation  were  correct  this  inscription  would  furnish 
a  remarkable  piece  of  evidence  for  direct  communication  between  Assyria  and 
the  Baltic  as  early  as  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  and  in  that  case  we  might  sup- 

35 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

early  period  obtained  amber  from  their  harbors  on  the  Black 
Sea;'  but  after  having  pursued  this  prosperous  carrying-trade 
from  their  harbors  here  and  in  the  west  it  is  not  improbable 
that  they  themselves  tried  to  penetrate  to  the  amber  countries 
with  their  ships.-  The  Phoenicians,  however,  tried  to  keep 
their  trade-routes  secret  from  their  dangerous  and  more  war- 
like rivals  the  Greeks,  and  it  is  therefore  not  surprising  that 
no  mention  of  these  routes  should  be  extant,  even  if  they  really 
undertook  such  voyages;  but  it  is  undeniably  more  remarkable 
still  that  no  certain  trace  of  them  has  been  found  along  the  coasts 
of  western  Europe. 

The  only  thing  we  know  is  that  about  the  year  500  B.C. 
the  Carthaginians  are  said  to  have  sent  out  an  expedition  under 
Himilco  through  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  and  thence  north- 
wards along  the  coast.  This  is  the  first  northern  sea  voyage 
of  which  mention  is  to  be  found  in  literature.  At  that  time 
Tyre,   the   mother-city   of   Gadir,  had   been   destroyed.      Until 

pose  it  established  by  means  of  the  Phoenicians.  But  unfortunately  another 
eminent  Assyriologist,  Professor  Schrader,  has  disputed  the  correctness  of 
the  translation  given  above,  which  he  thinks  is  the  result  of  a  false  reading  of 
the  inscription.  According  to  Schrader  there  is  no  mention  of  pearls,  or  am- 
ber, or  fleets,  or  pole-star,  or  zenith;  the  vyhole  refers  merely  to  this  ancient 
king's  hunting  in  the  mountains  of  Assyria  which  took  place  "  in  the  days 
when  the  star  Sukud  shone,  gleaming  like  bronze."  [Cf.  Verhandl.  d.  Ber- 
liner Gesellsch.  f.  Anthrop.  Ethnol.  u.  Urgesch.  1885,  pp,  65,  65,  306,  372;  and 
Mair,  1903,  p.  47.]  The  last  interpretation  is  undeniably  more  probable  than 
the  first,  and  it  may  well  be  thought  that  the  bronze-colored  star  which 
shone  may  have  been  Venus. 

1  That  amber  may  have  followed  this  route  in  early  times  is  made  probable 
by  the  finds  of  ornaments  of  amber  in  graves  of  the  Bronze  Age  (Hallstatt 
period)  in  the  Caucasus,  at  Koban  and  Samthavro. 

2  Franz  Mathias  [1902,  p.  73]  draws  attention  to  the  statement  of  Von 
Alten  ["Die  Bohlwege  im  Gebiet  der  Ems  und  Weser,"  p.  40  and  PI.  V.;  this 
paper  has  not  been  accessible  to  me]  that  in  1818  there  was  found  a  piece  of 
amber  with  a  Phoenician  inscription  on  one  of  the  oldest  and  deepest-lying 
bog  causeways  ("  Moorbriicken  ")  on  the  prehistoric  trade-route  from  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Weser  and  Ems  to  the  Rhine.  As  one  would  expect  amber  to  be 
carried  from  the  countries  in  the  north-east  towards  the  south,  and  not  in 
the  reverse  direction,  this  find,  if  properly  authenticated,  might  show  that 
there  were  Phoenicians  on  the  coast  to  the  north.  But  the  piece,  if  it  be 
Phoenician,  may  also  have  come  from  the  south  by  chance. 

36 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE  PYTHEAS 

then  she  had  controlled  the  trade  of  the  west.  It  was  natural 
that  Gadir  in  her  isolated  position  should  seek  support  from 
Carthage,  which  was  now  rising  into  power.  To  strengthen  her 
trade  communications,  therefore,  this  flourishing  city  sent  out 
Hanno's  great  expedition  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and 
Himilco  to  the  tin  country  in  the  north.  Himilco  seems  to  have 
written  an  account  of  the  journey;  but  of  this  all  that  has  been 
preserved  is  a  few  casual  pieces  of  information  in  a  poem  ("  Ora 
Maritima  ")  by  the  late  Roman  author  Rufus  Festus  Avienus  * 
(of  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  A.D.).  The  only  other  place 
where  Himilco's  name  is  mentioned  is  in  Pliny  [Hist.  Nat.  ii.  67, 
i6g],  who  merely  says  that  he  made  a  voyage  to  explore  the 
outer  coast  of  Europe,  contemporary  with  Hanno's  voyage  to 
the  south  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  in  addition  he 
names  him  in  the  list  of  his  authorities.  But  Pliny  himself 
probably  never  saw  his  work ;  it  cannot  be  seen  that  he  has  made 
use  of  it. 

It  is  true  that  Avienus  makes  a  pretence  of  having  used 
Himilco's  original  account,  but  certainly  he  had  never  seen  it. 
He  may  have  utilized  a  Greek  authority  of  about  the  time  of 
the  Christian  era  [cf.  Marx,  1895].  This  again  was  a  com- 
pound of  Greek  tales,  of  which  a  part  may  have  been  taken 
from  a  Punic  source,  but  of  the  latter  no  trace  is  found  in  any 
other  known  classical  writer,  with  the  exception  of  Pliny. 
Unfortunately  the  information  given  us  by  Avienus  shows 
little  intelligence  in  the  use  of  his  authorities,  and  his  poem  is 
often  obscure. 

In  the  description  of  the  coast  of  Western  Europe  [w,  90-129] 
we  read: 

And  here  the  projecting  ridge  raises  its  head — the  older  age  called  it  '  CEs- 
trymnis ' — and  all  the  high  mass  of  rocky  ridge  turns  mostly  towards  the 
warm  south  wind.  But  beneath  the  top  of  this  promontory  the  CEstrymnian 
Bay  opens  out  before  the  eyes  of  the  inhabitants.  In  the  midst  of  this  rise 
the  islands  which  are  called  CEstrymnides,  scattered  widely  about,  and  rich  in 
metals,  in  tin  and  in  lead.     Here  live  a  multitude  of  men  with  enterprise  and 

1  See  on  this  subject  specially  Miillenhoff,  1870,  i.  pp.  73-203.  Also  W. 
Christ,  1866;  Marx,  1895;  G.  Mair,  1899;  and  others. 

37 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

active  industry,  all  having  continually  commercial  interests;  they  plough  in 
skilful  fashion  far  and  wide  the  foaming  sea  [' f return,'  literally,  strait],  and 
the  currents  of  monster-bearing  Ocean  with  their  small  boats.  For  these 
people  do  not  know  how  to  fit  together  [literally,  weave]  keels  of  fir  or 
maple;  they  do  not  bend  their  craft  with  deal,  in  the  usual  way;  but  strange 
to  say,  they  make  their  ships  of  hides  sewed  together,  and  often  traverse  the 
vast  sea  with  the  help  of  hides.  Two  days'  voyage  from  thence  lay  the  great 
island,  which  the  ancients  called  '  the  Holy  Island,'  i  and  it  is  inhabited  by 
the  people  of  Hierne  [i.e.,  Ireland]  far  and  wide,  and  near  to  it  again  extends 
the  island  of  Albion.  And  it  was  the  custom  of  the  men  of  Tartessus  to  trade 
to  the  borders  of  the  CEstrymnides,  also  colonists  from  Carthage  and  the 
many  who  voyage  between  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  visited  these  seas.  The 
Carthaginian  Himilco  assures  us  that  these  seas  can  scarcely  be  sailed  through 
in  four  months,  as  he  has  himself  related  of  his  experience  on  his  voyage; 
thus  no  breeze  drives  the  ship  forward,  so  dead  is  the  sluggish  wind  of  this 
idle  sea.  He  also  adds  that  there  is  much  seaweed  among  the  waves,  and  that 
it  often  holds  the  ship  back  like  bushes.  Nevertheless  he  says  that  the  sea 
has  no  great  depth,  and  that  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  barely  covered  by  a 
little  water.  The  monsters  of  the  sea  move  continually  hither  and  thither, 
and  the  wild  beasts  swim  among  the  sluggish  and  slowly  creeping  ships. 

It  may  be  difficult  to  decide  how  much  of  this  is  really 
derived  from  Himilco.  The  name  "  CEstrymnis  "  is  not  found 
elsewhere  in  literature,  and  may  be  taken  from  him.-  The 
supposition  that  it  was  Cape  Finisterre  and  that  the  CEstrymnic 
Bay  ("  sinus  CEstrymnicus ")  was  the  Bay  of  Biscay  is  im- 
probable; a  bay  so  open  and  wide  could  scarcely  have  been 
described  in  terms  which  a  Latin  author  would  have  rendered 
by  "  sinus " ;  besides  which  there  would  be  difficulties  with 
the  CEstrymnides  which  were  widely  spread  therein.  CEstrymnis 
is  certainly  in  Brittany,  and  since  it  "  turns  chiefly  towards  the 
warm  south  wind,"  we  may  suppose  it  to  be  a  headland  on  the 

1  This  epithet,  which  constantly  recurs  when  Ireland  is  mentioned,  may  per- 
haps in  ancient  times  be  due  to  the  resemblance  between  the  Greek  words 
"  hieros  "  (holy)  and  "Hierne"  (Ireland),  which  latter  may  be  derived  from 
the  native  name  of  the  island,  "  Erin."  In  later  times,  of  course,  it  is  due  to 
Ireland's  early  conversion  to  Christianity  and  its  monastic  system. 

=  In  spite  of  MiillenhofTs  contrary  view  [1870,  p.  92],  it  does  not  appear  to 
me  altogether  impossible  that  it  may  have  arisen  through  a  corruption  of  the 
name  of  the  people  whom  Pytheas  calls  "  Ostimians "  or  "  Ostimnians,"  and 
which  in  some  manuscripts  of  Strabo  [iv.  195]  also  takes  the  forms  "  Osis- 
mians"  [cf.  also  Mela,  iii.  2,  7;  Pliny,  iv.  32;  Ptolemy,  ii.  8,  5;  Orosius,  6,  8] 
and  "  Ostidamnians  "  [i.  64],  and  who  lived  in  Brittany. 

38 


ANTIQUITY,    BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

south  coast.  That  the  CEstrymnic  Bay  opens  out  beneath  this 
headland  ("  sub  hujus  ")  agrees  with  all  that  we  know  of  it.  As 
already  stated,  the  tin-producing  CEstrymnides  are  undoubtedly 
the  Cassiterides,  which  may  probably  be  the  islands  in  the  bay 
by  the  mouth  of  the  Vilaine  and  Quiberon,  on  the  south  side  of 
Brittany,  where  tin  occurs. 

It  is  just  in  this  district,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loire,  that  we  find  the  Veneti 
as  the  only  people  famous  for  seamanship  in  ancient  times  in  these  parts. 
But,  according  to  Cssar's  valuable  description,  they  had  strong,  seaworthy 
ships,  built  wholly  of  oak  and  with  leather  sails.  This  seems  scarcely  to  tally 
with  the  statement  that  the  people  of  the  CEstrymnides  sailed  the  sea  in  boats 
of  hide,  the  coracles  of  the  Celts,  which  is  also  confirmed  by  Pliny's  state- 
ment [xxxiv.  c.  47]  that  "  according  to  fabulous  tales  tin  was  brought  in  ships 
of  wicker-work  sewed  round  with  hides  from  islands  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 
Either  the  Veneti  must  have  acquired  the  art  of  shipbuilding  after  the  voyage 
of  Himilco — perhaps,  indeed,  through  their  intercourse  with  Carthaginians 
and  Gaditanians — or  else  we  must  believe  that  the  statement  in  Avienus  rests 
upon  a  misinterpretation  of  the  original  authorities,  and  that  the  flowery  lan- 
guage really  means  that  the  ships  were  not  built  of  fir,  maple  or  spruce,  but 
of  oak,  the  omission  of  which  is  striking. 

Thus  a  comparison  of  the  various  statements  points  defi- 
nitely to  Brittany  as  the  place  where  we  must  look  for  the  tin- 
bearing  islands.  That  it  was  two  days'  voyage  thence  to  the 
holy  island  of  Hierne,  and  that  near  to  it  lay  the  land  of  Albion, 
also  agrees;  but  too  much  weight  must  not  be  laid  upon  this, 
as  we  do  not  know  for  certain  whether  this  is  really  derived  from 
Himilco. 

The  sea-monsters  may  be  taken  as  accessories  put  in  to 
make  the  voyage  terrible;  but  on  the  other  hand  they  may  be 
the  great  whales  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  of  which  there  were  many 
in  those  days,  before  whaling  was  undertaken  there.  The  ex- 
aggerated description  of  the  length  and  difficulties  of  the  voyage 
fits  in  badly  with  the  information  that  the  men  of  Tartessus  and 
the  Carthaginians  were  in  the  habit  of  trading  there.  How  much 
of  this  is  due  to  misunderstanding  of  the  original,  or  to  down- 
right interpolation,  we  do  not  know.  With  the  universal  desire 
of  the  Carthaginians  and  Phoenicians  to  keep  the  monopoly 
of  their  trade-routes,  Himilco  may  have  added  this  to  frighten 

39 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

others.  It  is  also  possible  that  he  made  a  longer  voyage  in  four 
months,  but  that  Avienus's  authority  gave  an  obscure  and  bun- 
gled account  of  it. 

The  description  of  the  shallow  water,  and  of  the  seaweed 
which  holds  the  ships  back,  &c.,  seems  to  correspond  to  the 
actual  conditions.  In  another  part  of  the  poem  something  simi- 
lar occurs,  where  we  read  [v.  375]  :  "  Outside  the  Pillars  of 
"  Hercules  along  the  side  of  Europe  the  Carthaginians  once  had 
"  villages  and  towns.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  building  their 
"  fleets  with  flatter  bottoms,  since  a  broader  ship  could  float 
"  upon  the  surface  of  a  shallower  sea."  *  One  is  reminded  of  the 
shallow  west  coast  of  France,  where  the  tide  lays  large  tracts  al- 
ternately dry  (covered  with  seaweed)  and  under  water,  so  that  it 
might  well  be  said  that  "  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  barely  cov- 
"  ered  by  a  little  water."  Ebb  and  flood  were,  of  course,  an  un- 
known phenomenon  in  the  Mediterranean.  In  this  respect  also 
the  description  suits  the  voyage  to  Brittany,  where  the  sea  is 
shallow.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  expression  "  seaweed 
"  among  the  waves  "  might  show  that  Himilco  had  been  near  to 
or  in  the  Sargasso  Sea ;  but  there  is  no  reason  whatever  for  sup- 
posing this ;  the  explanation  given  above  is  more  natural,  besides 
which  the  Sargasso  Sea  could  hardly  be  described  as  shallow  and 
as  lying  on  the  way  to  CEstrymnis." 

On  the  Atlantic  Ocean  Avienus  has  the  following  (vv. 
380-389) : 

Farther  to  the  west  from  these  Pillars  there  is  boundless  sea.  Himilco  re- 
lates that  the  ocean  extends  far,  none  has  visited  these  seas;  none  has  sailed 
ships  over  these  waters,  because  propelling  winds  are  lacking  on  these  deeps, 
and  no  breeze  from  heaven  helps  the  ship.  Likewise  because  darkness  ['  cal- 
igo '  ^  darkness,  usually  owing  to  fog]  screens  the  light  of  day  with  a  sort  of 

1  In  Caesar's  description  [B.G.,  iii.  13]  of  the  ships  of  the  Veneti  it  is  also 
stated  that  "  the  keels  were  somewhat  flatter  than  in  our  ships,  whereby  they 
were  better  able  to  cope  with  the  shallows  and  the  falling  tides." 

-  It  has  been  alleged  as  a  proof  that  the  Phoenicians  really  knew  of  the 
Sargasso  Sea  that  Sargasso  weed  is  mentioned  by  Theophrastus  ["  Historia 
Plantarum,"  iv.  6,  4],  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  anything  of  the  sort  in 
this  author;  nor  can  I  find  any  statement  in  Aristotle  [Miral.  Auscult].  which 
can  be  thus  interpreted,  as  some  have  thought. 
40 


ANTIQUITY,   BEFORE   PYTHEAS 

clothing,  and  because  a  fog  always  conceals  the  sea,  and  because  the  weather 
is  perpetually  cloudy  with  thick  atmosphere. 

If  we  may  believe  Avienus  that  this  description  is  derived 
from  Himilco,  it  possesses  great  interest,  since  here  and  in 
the  description  (above)  of  the  voyage  to  CEstrymnis  we  find  the 
same  ideas  of  the  western  sea  and  of  the  uttermost  sea  which 
appear  later,  after  Pytheas's  time,  in  the  accounts  of  the  thick 
and  sluggish  sea  without  wind  round  Thule,  and  in  this  case 
it  shows  that  already  at  that  early  period  ideas  of  this  sort 
had  developed.  Miillenhoff  [1870,  pp.  78,  93  f.],  it  is  true, 
takes  it  for  granted  that  these  descriptions  in  Avienus  cannot 
be  derived  from  Himilco,  but  his  reasons  for  so  doing  do 
not  appear  convincing.  Aristotle  says  [Meteorologica,  ii.  i, 
14]  that  the  sea  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  was  muddy  and 
shallow,  and  little  stirred  by  the  winds.  This  shows  clearly 
enough  that  ideas  of  that  kind  were  current  among  the  Greeks 
even  before  Pytheas,  and  they  must  doubtless  have  got  them 
from  the  Phoenicians. 

That  some  very  ancient  authority  is  really  the  basis  of  the 
description  of  the  west  coast  of  Europe  as  far  as  the  CEstrym- 
nides,  which  we  find  in  Avienus,  is  proved  again  by  the  fact 
that  the  regions  farther  to  the  north  or  north-east  are  clearly 
enough  represented  as  entirely  unknown,  when  we  read  [vv. 
129-145]: 

If  any  one  dares  to  steer  his  boat  from  the  CEstrymnic  Islands  in  the  direc- 
tion where  the  air  is  cold  at  the  axis  of  Lycaon.i  he  will  arrive  at  the  country 
of  the  Ligurians,  which  is  void  of  inhabitants.  For  by  the  host  of  the  Celts 
and  by  numerous  battles  it  has  lately  been  rendered  void.  And  the  expelled 
Ligurians  came,  as  fate  often  drives  people  away,  to  the  districts  where  there 
is  hardly  anything  but  bush.  Many  sharp  stones  are  there  in  those  parts,  and 
cold  rocks,  and  the  mountains  rise  threateningly  to  heaven.  And  the  refugees 
lived  for  a  long  time  in  narrow  places  among  rocks  away  from  the  sea.  For 
they  were  afraid  of  waves  [i.e.,  afraid  to  come  near  the  coast]  by  reason  of 
the  old  danger.  Later,  when  security  had  given  them  boldness,  peace  and 
quietness  persuaded  them  to  leave  their  high  positions,  and  now  they  de- 
scended to  places  by  the  sea. 

1  Lycaon  was  the  father  of  Callisto,  and  the  latter  became  a  she-bear  and 
was  placed  among  the  stars  as  the  constellation  of  the  Great  Bear.  "  At  the 
axis  of  Lycaon "  means,  therefore,  "  in  the  north." 

41 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Miillenhoff  thinks  [1870,  pp.  85  f.]  that  this  mention  of  the 
expulsion  of  the  Ligurians  by  the  Celts  is  necessarily  a  late  addi- 
tion by  a  man  from  the  district  of  Massalia  where  the  Ligurians 
lived;  but  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  name  is  here  used  as 
a  common  designation  for  the  pre-Celtic  people  who  dwelt  in 
these  north-western  regions;  and  if  it  is  the  north  side  of  Brit- 
tany which  is  here  spoken  of,  the  Ligurians  of  southern  Gaul  will 
not  be  so  far  away  after  all.  It  is  clear  that  in  ancient  times  the 
people  of  west  and  north-west  Europe  were  called  "  Ligyans." 
Hesiod  mentioned  them  as  the  people  of  the  west  in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  Scythians  of  the  east  [cf.  Strabo,  vii.  300],  and 
in  the  legend  of  Phaethon  occurs  the  Ligyan  king  Cycnus  at  the 
mouth  of  the  amber-producing  river  Eridanus,  which  doubtless 
was  originally  supposed  to  fall  into  the  sea  on  the  north  or  north- 
west. We  may  interpret  it  as  meaning  that  the  aborigines,  Ligy- 
ans or  Ligurians,  were  driven  by  the  immigrant  Celts  up  into 
the  bush-covered  mountainous  parts  of  Brittany.  In  any  case 
this  passage  in  Avienus,  which  assumes  that  the  districts  farther 
north  are  unknown,  is  a  strong  proof  that  his  information  is 
ancient  and  derived  from  Himilco,  and  that  the  latter  penetrated 
as  far  as  the  north  coast  of  Brittany,  or  the  south  of  Britain,  but 
no  farther. 


42 


CHAPTER   II 
PYTHEAS    OF   MASSALIA 

THE   VOYAGE   TO   THULE 

AMONG  all  the  vague  and  fabulous  ideas  about  the 
North  that  prevailed  in  antiquity,  the  name  of 
Pytheas  stands  out  as  the  only  one  who  gives  us  a  firmer 
foothold.  By  his  extraordinary  voyage  (or  voyages?)  this 
eminent  astronomer  and  geographer,  of  the  Phocaean  colony 
of  Massalia  (now  Marseilles),  contributed  a  knowledge  of  the 
northern  countries  based  upon  personal  experience,  and  set 
his  mark  more  or  less  upon  all  that  was  known  of  the  farthest 
north  for  the  next  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  years.  Even 
though  later  writers  like  Polybius  and  Strabo  declared  them- 
selves unwilling  to  believe  in  his  "  incredible  "  statements,  they 
could  not  neglect  him.^ 

Pytheas  wrote  at  least  one  work,  which,  if  we  may  believe 
Geminus  of  Rhodes,  was  called  "On  the  Ocean,"  but  all  his 
writings  have  been  lost  for  ages,  and  we  only  know 
him     through     chance     quotations     in     much     later     authors 

'As  to  Pytheas,  see  in  particular:  Miillenhoff,  1870,  pp.  211  f.;  Berger,  iii., 
1891,  pp.  I  f.;  Hergt,  1893;  Markham,  1893;  Ahlenius,  1894;  Matthias,  1901; 
Kahler,  1903;  Detlefsen,  1904;  Callegari,  1904;  Mair,  1906. 

43 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

(chiefly  Strabo  and  Pliny)  who  have  not  even  read^his  work 
themselves,  but  quote  at  second-hand ;  and  several  of  them 
(especially  Polybius  and  Strabo)  tried  to  represent  him  as  an 
impostor  and  laid  stress  upon  what  they  thought  would 
make  him  ridiculous  and  lessen  his  reputation.*  The  scraps  of 
information  we  possess  about  him  and  his  voyages  have  thus 
come  down  on  the  stream  of  time  as  chance  wreckage,  partly  dis- 
torted and  perverted  by  hostile  forces.  It  is  too  much  to  hope 
that  from  such  fragments  we  may  be  able  to  form  a  trustworthy 
idea  of  the  original  work,  but  nevertheless  from  the  little  we 
know  there  arises  a  figure  which  in  strength,  intelligence, 
and  bold  endurance  far  surpasses  the  discoverers  of  most 
periods. 

Of  Pytheas's  personal  circumstances  we  have  no  certain 
information,  and  we  do  not  even  know  when  he  lived.  As 
he  was  unknown  to  Aristotle,  but  was  known  to  his  pupil 
Dicaearchus  (who  died  about  285  B.C.),  he  was  probably  a 
contemporary  of  Aristotle  and  Alexander,  and  his  voyage 
may  have  been  undertaken  about  330-325  B.  C.  So  little  do 
we  know  about  the  voyage  that  doubts  have  been  raised 
as  to  whether  it  was  really  a  sea-voyage,  or  whether  a  great 
part  of  it  did  not  lie  overland.  Nor  do  we  know  whether 
Pytheas   made    one    or    several   long   journeys   to    the    North. 

^The  principal  authorities  on  Pytheas  are:  Strabo  (ist  century  A.D.),  who 
did  not  know  his  original  works,  but  quotes  for  the  most  part  from  Polybius 
(2nd  century  B.C.),  who  was  very  hostile  to  Pytheas,  and  from  Eratosthenes, 
Hipparchus,  and  Timasus.  Pliny  has  derived  much  information  from  Pytheas, 
though  he  does  not  know  him  directly,  but  chiefly  through  Timaeus,  Isidorus 
of  Charax,  who  again  knew  him  through  Eratosthenes,  &c.  Diodorus  Sicu- 
lus  (1st  century  B.C.)  knows  him  chiefly  through  Timaeus.  Geminus  of 
Rhodes  (ist  century  B.C.),  who  has  a  quotation  from  him,  possibly  knew  his 
original  work,  "  On  the  Ocean,"  but  he  may  have  quoted  from  Crates  of 
Mallus.  Solinus  (3rd  century  A.D.),  who  has  much  information  about  Pyth- 
eas, knows  him  chiefly  through  Pliny  and  Timaeus.  Further  second-hand  quo- 
tations and  pieces  of  information  derived  from  Pytheas  occur  in  Pomponius 
Mela  (ist  century  A.D.),  Cleomedes  (2nd  century  A.D.),  Ptolemy  (3rd  cen- 
tury A.D.),  Agathemerus  (3rd  century  A.D.),  scholiasts  on  Apollonius  o£ 
Rhodes,  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (4th  century  A.D.),  Orosius  (5th  century 
A.D.),  Isidorus  Hispaliensis  (7th  century  A.D.),  and  others. 

44 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

According  to  a   statement   of   Polybius,   Pytheas   was  a   poor 
man:  for  he  finds  it  (according  to  Strabo,  ii.   104)   "incredible 
that    it    should    be    possible    for    a    private    individual    without 
means   to   accomplish   journeys    of    such    wide    extent."     If    it 
be  true  that  he  was  poor,  which  is  uncertain,  we  must  doubtless 
suppose  that  Pytheas  either  had   command  of  a  public   expe- 
dition,  fitted   out   by   the   merchants    of   the   enterprising   city 
of   Massalia,   or   that   he   accompanied   such    an   expedition   as 
an  astronomer  and  explorer.     At  that  time   the  city   was   at 
the  height  of  its  prosperity,  after  it  had  expelled  the  Cartha- 
ginians, as  the  result  of  the  successful  war  with  them,  from 
the  rich  fisheries  of  the  Iberian  coast,  and  had  also  succeeded 
in   establishing   commercial   relations   there,   whereby   its  ships 
were  able  to  sail  out  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules;  a  thing 
which  cannot  have  been  so  easy  for  them  during  the  former 
sea-supremacy    of    Carthage    in    the    western    Mediterranean, 
which   was   re-established   in   306    B.C.,   whereby   the   western 
ocean  again  became  more   or  less   closed   to   the   Massalians. 
It  is  very  probable  that  the  flourishing  city  of  Massalia  desired 
to  send  out  an  expedition  to  find  the   sea  route  to  the   outer 
coasts  of  the  continent,  from  whence   it   was  known  that  the 
two    important    articles    of    commerce,    tin    and    amber,    were 
obtained.     But  it  is  evident  that  Pytheas  had  more  than  this 
business    motive    for    his    journey.     From    all    that    we    know 
it  appears  that  with  him  too  the  object  was  to  reach  the  most 
northern   point    possible,    in    order    to    find    out    how    far    the 
"  oecumene "     extended,     to    determine     the     position     of    the 
Arctic  Circle  and  the  Pole,  and  to  see  the  light  northern  nights 
and  the  midnight  sun,  which  to  the  Greeks  of  that  time  was 
so  remarkable  a  phenomenon. 

We  know  that  Pytheas  was  an  eminent  astronomer.  He 
was  the  first  in  history  to  introduce  astronomical  measure- 
ments for  ascertaining  the  geographical  situation  of  a  place ;  and 
this  by  itself  is  enough  to  give  him  a  prominent  position  among 
the  geographers  of  all  times. 
By   means    of    a    great    gnomon    he    determined,    with    sur- 

45 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


prising    accuracy,    the    latitude    of    his    own    city,    Massalia,^ 

which  formed  the  starting-point  of  his  journey,  and  in  relation 

to  which  he  laid  down  the  latitude  of  more  northerly  places. 

Pytheas      also      made      other      astronomical 

measurements    which    show    him    to    have    been 

a    remarkably    good    observer.     He    found    that 

the    pole    of    the    heavens    did    not    coincide,    as 

the    earlier   astronomer    Eudoxus    had    supposed, 

with    any    star;    but    that    it    made    an    almost 

regular    rectangle    with    three    stars    lying    near 

it.-     The    pole    of    the    heavens    was    naturally 

of  consequence  to  Pytheas,  who  steered  by  the 

stars;    but    it    is    nevertheless    striking  that    he 

Gnomon         should  have  considered  it  necessary  to  measure 

it    with    such    accuracy,    if    he    had    not    some 

other   object    in    doing   so.     He    may   have    required    the    pole 

for    the    adjustment    of    the    equinoctial    sun-dial    ("  polus "), 

whose    pointers    had    to    be    parallel    with    the    axis    of    the 

heavens ;  ^    but    it    is    also    possible    that    he    had    discovered 

that  by  measuring  the  altitude  of  the  pole  above  the  horizon 

1  A  "  gnomon  "  was  the  pillar  or  projection  which  cast  the  shadow  on  the 
various  Greek  forms  of  sun-dial.  In  the  case  mentioned  above  the  gnomon 
was  a  vertical  column  raised  on  a  plane.  By  measuring  the  length  of  the 
shadow  at   the    solstice,   Pytheas   found  that   it  was  41I:   120  or    £22    of  the 

6co 

height  of  the  column.  According  to  that  the  altitude  of  the  sun  was  70°  47' 
50".  From  this  must  be  deducted  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic,  which  was  at 
that  time  23°  44'  40",  and  the  semi-diameter  of  the  sun  (16'),  as  the  shadow  is 
not  determined  by  the  sun's  centre  but  by  its  upper  edge,  besides  the  refrac- 
tion, which  however  is  unimportant.  When  the  equatorial  altitude  thus  ar- 
rived at  is  deducted  from  90°,  we  get  the  latitude  of  Massalia  as  43°  13'  N. 
The  new  observatory  of  Marseilles  is  at  43°  18'  19";  but  it  lies  some  distance 
to  the  north  of  the  ancient  city,  where  Pytheas's  gnomon  probably  stood  in 
the  market-place.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  an  accuracy  of  measurement 
which  was  not  surpassed  until  very  much  later  times. 

-  It  has  been  supposed  that  these  three  stars  were  ^  of  the  Little  Bear,  a 
and  K  of  Draco.  The  pole  was  at  that  time  far  from  the  present  pole-star, 
and  nearer  to  fi  of  the  Little  Bear. 

s  Both   "gnomon"   and   "polus"   are   mentioned   as    early   as    Herodotus; 
and  Atheneeus    [v.  42]   describes  the  polus  in  the  library  on  board  the   ship 
"  Hiero  "  which  was  built  by  Archimedes. 
46 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

he  obtained  directly  the  latitude  of  the  spot  on  the  earth, 
and  that  this  was  a  simpler  method  of  determining  the  lati- 
tude than  by  measuring  the  altitude  of  the  sun 
by  a  gnomon.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  he  pos- 
sessed the  requisite  knowledge  for  calculating 
gnomon  measurements  unless  they  were  taken 
either  at  the  solstice  or  the  equinox.  To 
judge  by  quotations  in  various  authors  he  must 
have  given  the  latitude  of  several  places  in 
numbers  of  parts  of  a  circle  north  of  Massalia.* 
These  results  of  his  may  perhaps  be  partly  based 
on  measurements  of  the  polar  altitude.     Whether  Sundial. 

Pytheas  was  acquainted  with  any  instrument  for  the  measure- 
ment of  angles  we  do  not  know;  but  it  is  not  unlikely,  since 
even  the  Chaldeans  appear  to  have  invented  a  kind  of  paral- 
lactic rule,  which  was  improved  upon  by  the  Alexandrians, 
and  was  called  by  the  Romans  "  triquetrum "  (regula 
Ptolemaica).  The  instrument  resembled  a  large  pair  of 
compasses  with  long  straight  rods  for  legs,  and  the  angle 
was  determined  by  measuring,  in  measure  of  length,  the 
distance  between  these  two  legs.-     As  the  pole  of  the  heavens 

^  It  is  not  probable  that  Pytheas  divided  the  earth's  circumference  into 
degrees.  Even  Eratosthenes  (275-194  B.C.)  still  divided  the  circumference 
of  the  earth  into  sixty  parts,  each  equal  to  4200  stadia,  and  the  division  into 
degrees  was  first  universally  employed  by  Hipparchus.  But  Aristarchus  of 
Samos,  and  perhaps  even  Thales,  had  already  learnt  that  the  sun's  diameter 
was  2  X  360  or  720  times  contained  in  the  circle  described  by  them.  It  is 
possible  that  they  originally  had  this  from  the  Chaldaeans. 

-  When  it  is  brought  forward  as  a  proof  of  Pytheas  having  made  such  an- 
gle-measurements [cf.  Mair,  igo6,  p.  28],  that  Hipparchus  is  said  to  have 
given  the  sun's  height  (in  cubits)  above  the  horizon  at  the  winter  solstice  for 
three  different  places  in  north-west  Europe  [cf.  Strabo,  ii.  75],  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  if  these  altitudes  were  direct  measurements  by  Pytheas  him- 
self, he  must  have  been  at  each  of  these  three  places  at  the  winter  solstice, 
that  is  to  say,  in  three  different  winters,  where  he  found  that  in  one  place  the 
sun  stood  six  cubits,  in  another  four  cubits,  and  in  the  third  less  than  three 
cubits  above  the  horizon.  This  is  improbable,  and  it  is  more  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  these  altitudes  are  the  result  of  calculations  either  by  Pytheas 
himself  or  by  Hipparchus  from  his  data. 

47 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

did  not  coincide  with  any  star,  such  measurements  cannot  have 
been  very  accurate,  unless  Pytheas  took  the  trouble  to  measure 
a  circumpolar  star  in  its  upper  and  lower  culmination; 
or,  indeed,  in  only  one  of  them,  for  he  may  easily  have 
found  the  distance  of  the  star  from  the  pole  by  his  earlier  obser- 
vations to  determine  the  position  of  the  pole  itself.     It  is  also 


Greek  trading-vessel  and  longship  (warship),  from  a  vase  painting 
(about  500  B.C.) 

quite  possible  that  by  the  aid  of  the  rectangle  formed  by  the  pole 
with  three  stars,  he  was  able  to  obtain  an  approximate  measure- 
ment of  the  altitude  of  the  pole.  Another  indication  used  by 
the  Greeks  to  obtain  the  latitude  of  a  place  was  the  length  of  its 
longest  day.  To  determine  this  Pytheas  may  have  used 
the  equinoctial  dial  ("polus"),  or  the  water-clock,  the  "clepsy- 
dra "  of  the  Greeks. 

It  is  not  known  what  kind  of  ship  he  had  for  his  voyage; 
but  if  it  was  equal  to  the  best  that  Massalia  at  that  time  could 
afford,  it  may  well  have  been  a  good  sea-craft.  As  it  was  neces- 
sary to  be  prepared  for  hostilities  on  the  part  of  the 
Carthaginians  and  Gaditanians,  he  doubtless  had  a  warship 
(longship),  which  sailed  faster  than  the  broader  merchantmen, 
and  which  could  also  be  rowed  by  one  or  more  banks  of  oifrs. 
48 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 


It  may  have  been  considerably  over  loo  feet  long,  and  far 
larger  than  those  in  which  later  the  Norsemen  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  It  has  been  asserted  that  Pj^heas  must  have  gone 
on  foot  for  the  greater  part  of  his  journey,  since,  according 
to  Strabo  [ii.  104],  he  is  said  to  have  stated  "not  only  that 
"  he  had  visited  the  whole 
"  of  Britain  on  foot,  but 
"he  also  gives  its  circum- 
"  ference  as  more  than 
"  40,000  stadia."  But,  as 
Professor  Alf  Torp  has 
pointed  out  to  me,  it  is 
not  stated  that  he 
"  traversed "  it,  but 
"  visited "  it  on  foot. 
The  meaning  must  be 
that  he  put  in  at  many 
places  on  the  coast,  and 
made  longer  or  shorter 
excursions  into  the 
country.  That  a  man 
should  be  able  to  trav- 
erse such  great  distances 
alone  on  foot,  through 
the  roadless  and  forest- 
clad  countries  of  that 
period,   seems   impossible. 

We  do  not  know  what  previous  knowledge  Pytheas  may 
have  had  about  the  regions  visited  by  him;  but  it  is  probable 
that  he  had  heard  of  the  tin  country  through  the  merchants 
who  brought  the  tin  overland  through  Gaul  and  down  the 
Rhone  to  Massalia.  In  a  similar  way  he  had  certainly  also 
heard  of  the  amber  country.  Besides  this,  he  may  have  been 
acquainted  with  the  trading  voyages  of  the  Phoenicians  and 
Carthaginians  along  the  west  coast  of  Europe,  and  with  the 
voyage  of  Himilco.     Although  it  is  true  that  the   Phoenician 

49 


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/-'I     -'^ 

!P^ — 3 

J^'^OXN 

l_2s;^ 

— 1 

Pytheas'  probable  routes 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

sailors  tried  to  keep  the  secret  of  their  routes  from  their  dan- 
gerous rivals  the  Greeks  and  Massalians,  they  cannot  have  been 
altogether  successful  in  the  long  run,  virhether  their  intercourse 
was  hostile  or  friendly;  a  few  sailor  prisoners  would  have  been 
enough  to  bring  the  information. 

When  Pytheas  sailed  out  through  the  Pillars  of  Hercules 
he  soon  arrived,  in  passing  the  Sacred  Promontory  (Cape  St. 
Vincent),  at  the  limit  of  the  world  as  known  to  the  Greeks. 
He  sailed  northward  along  the  west  and  north  coast  of  Iberia 
(Portugal  and  Spain).  He  made  observations  of  the  tides,  that 
remarkable  phenomenon  to  a  man  from  the  Mediterranean,  and 
their  cause,  and  was  the  first  Greek  to  connect  them  with  the 
moon.  He  proceeded  farther  north,  and  found  that  the  north- 
western part  of  Celtica  (Gaul)  formed  a  peninsula,  Cabasum 
(Brittany),  where  the  Ostimians  lived.  He  supposed  that  it  ex- 
tended farther  west  than  Cape  Finisterre ;  but  errors  of  that  sort 
are  easily  understood  at  a  time  when  no  means  existed  of  de- 
termining longitude. 

Farther  north  he  came  to  Brettanice  (Britain),  which  he 
appears  to  have  circumnavigated.  The  Sicilian  historian, 
Diodorus,  an  elder  contemporary  of  Strabo,  says  [v.  21]: 
"  Britain  is  triangular  in  form  like  Sicily ;  but  the  sides 
"  are  not  of  equal  length ;  the  nearest  promontory  is  Kantion 
"  [Kent],  and  according  to  what  is  reported  it  is  100  stadia 
"distant  (from  the  continent).  The  second  promontory  is 
"  Belerion  [Cornwall],  which  is  said  to  be  four  days' 
"  sail  from  the  continent.  The  third  lies  towards  the  sea  [i.e., 
"towards    the    north]    and    is    called    Orkan.^     Of    the    three 

1  In  Diodorus  it  is  called  Orkan,  but  this  may  be  the  accusative  of  Orkas, 
as  in  later  writers,  also  in  Ptolemy  (Miillenhoff,  1870,  pp.  377,  thinks  that  Or- 
kan is  the  real  form),  and  from  which  the  name  Orcades  has  been  formed  for 
the  group  of  islands  immediately  to  the  north.  Orkneyar  or  Orkneys  cer- 
tainly comes  from  the  same  word,  which  must  presumably  be  of  Celtic  origin. 
P.  A.  Munch  [1852,  pp.  44-46]  thought  that  the  name  came  from  the  Gaelic 
word  "  ore  "  for  the  grampus  (the  specific  name  of  which  in  Latin  was  there- 
fore "  Delphinus  orca,"  now  called  "  Orca  gladiator").  This  species  of  whale 
is  common  on  the  coasts  of  Norway,  the  Shet'ands  and  Orkneys,  the   Faroes 

50 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

"  sides  the  one  which  runs  parallel  to  Europe  is  the  shortest, 
"  7500  stadia ;  the  second,  which  extends  from  the  place  of 
"crossing  [Kent]  to  the  point  [i.e.,  Orkan]  is  15,000  stadia;  but 
"  the  last  is  20,000  stadia,  so  that  the  circumference  amounts  to 
"  42,500  stadia." 

These  statements  must  originally  have  been  due  to  Pytheas, 
even  though  Diodorus  has  taken  them  at  second-hand  (perhaps 
from  Timaeus).  But  Pytheas  cannot  very  well  have  acquired 
such  an  idea  of  the  shape  of  the  island  without  having  sailed 
round  it.  It  is  true  that  the  estimate  attributed  to  him  of  the 
island's  circumference  is  more  than  double  the  reality,^  a  dis- 
crepancy which  is  adduced  by  Strabo  as  a  proof  that  Pytheas 
was  a  liar ;  "  but  neither  Strabo  nor  Diodorus  was  acquainted 
with  his  own  description,  and  there  are  many  indica- 
tions that  the  exaggeration  cannot  be  attributed  to  himself,  but 
to  a  later  writer,  probably  Timaeus.  Pytheas  in  his  work  can 
only  have  stated  how  many  days  he  took  to  sail  along  the  coasts, 
and  his  day's  sail  in  those  unknown  waters  was  certainly  a  short 
one.  But  the  uncritical  Timasus,  who  was  moreover  a 
historian  and  not  a  geographer,  may,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  his  time,  have  converted  Pytheas's  days'  journeys  into 
stadia  at  the  usual  equation  of  1000  stadia  (about  100  geograph- 
ical miles)  for  one  day's  sailing.*  Timaeus  served  to  a  great  ex- 
tent as  the  authority  for  later  authors  who  have  mentioned 
Pytheas,  and  it  is  probably  through  him  that  the  erroneous  in- 
formation as  to  the  circumference  of  Britain  reached  Polybius, 

and  farther  west.  It  usually  swims  in  schools,  and  is  the  great  whale's  dead- 
liest enemy,  attacking  it  in  numbers  and  cutting  blubber  out  of  its  sides.  The 
Eskimo  in  Greenland  asserts  that  it  is  sometimes  dangerous  to  kayaks;  I  my- 
self have  only  once  seen  a  grampus  attack  a  boat;  but  in  any  case  it  is  a 
species  which  easily  draws  attention  to  itself  wherever  it  appears. 

1  Allowing  for  the  greater  bays,  and  putting  a  degree  of  latitude  at  700 
stadia  the  sides  of  Great  Britain  are  about  4000,  7800  and  12,000  stadia;  al- 
together 23,800  stadia,  or  about  2375  miles. 

-  Strabo  erred  just  as  much  on  his  side  in  making  the  circumference  of 
Britain  much  too  small. 

2  Cf.  Hergt,  1893,  pp.  44.  This  hypothesis  is  supported  by  the  round  num- 
bers which  answer  to  7J,  15,  and  20  days'  sail. 

51 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Strabo,  Diodorus,  Pliny,  and  Solinus.  In  this  way  geographical 
explorers  may  easily  have  gross  errors  attributed  to  them,  when 
their  original  observations  are  lost. 

From  statements  of  Hipparchus,  preserved  by  Strabo 
[ii.  71,  74,  75,  115,  125,  134],  we  may  conclude  that  Pytheas 
obtained  astronomical  data  at  various  spots  in  Britain  and  Orkan. 
Hipparchus  has  made  use  of  these  in  his  tables  of  climate,  and 
he  was  able  from  them  to  point  out  that  the  longest 
day  in  the  most  northern  part  of  Britain  was  of  eighteen  equinoc- 
tial hours,^  and  in  an  inhabited  country,  which  according  to 
Pytheas  lay  farther  north  than  Britain,  the  longest  day  was 
of  nineteen  equinoctial  hours.  If  the  length  of  day  is  fixed 
in  round  numbers  of  hours,  a  longest  day  of  eighteen  hours 
fits  the  northernmost  part  of  Scotland,^  while  the  country 
still  farther  north  with  a  longest  day  of  nineteen  hours  agrees 
exactly   with    Shetland.^     These    data    are    important,    as    they 

1  The  Greeks  divided  the  day  into  twelve  hours  at  all  times  of  the  year;  it 
was  thus  only  at  the  equinoxes,  when  the  day  was  really  twelve  hours  long, 
that  the  hours  were  of  the  same  length  as  ours.  These  are,  therefore,  called 
equinoctial  hours. 

2  A  similar  statement  in  Cleomedes  [L  7],  after  Eratosthenes  and  Posi- 
donius  [i.  10],  may  also  be  derived  from  Pytheas:  "the  longest  day  in 
Britain  has  eighteen  hours." 

2  If  we  assume  that  the  length  of  the  day  was  found  by  a  theoretical  calcu- 
lation of  the  time  between  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun's  centre  above  the 
horizon,  without  taking  account  of  refraction,  then  a  longest  day  of  nineteen 
hours  answers  to  60°  52'  N.  lat.;  but  if  we  suppose  that  the  length  of  the  day 
was  found  by  direct  observation  and  was  calculated  from  the  first  appearance 
of  the  sun's  limb  in  the  morning  until  its  final  disappearance  in  the  evening, 
then  horizontal  refraction  will  be  of  importance  (besides  having  to  take  the 
sun's  semi-diameter  into  account)  and  a  longest  day  of  nineteen  hours  then 
answers  to  59°  59'  N.  lat.  Now  the  Shetland  Isles  lie  between  59°  51'  and 
60°  51'  N.  lat.;  while  the  northern  point  of  the  Orkneys  lies  in  59°  23'  N.  lat., 
and  has  a  longest  day,  theoretically  of  18  hours  27  minutes,  and  actually  of 
18  hours  36  minutes.  A  longest  day  of  18  hours  answers  theoretically  to  57° 
59',  actually  to  fully  57°  N.  lat.  Professor  H.  Geelmuyden  has  had  the  kind- 
ness to  work  out  several  of  these  calculations  for  me.  Hipparchus  said  that 
at  the  winter  solstice  the  sun  attained  to  a  height  of  less  than  three  cubits 
above  the  horizon  in  the  regions  where  the  longest  day  was  of  nineteen  hours. 
If  we  take  one  cubit  as  equal  to  two  degrees  these  regions  will  then  lie  north 
of  60°  N.  lat. 

52 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

show  that  Pytheas  must  have  been  in  the  most  northerly  parts 
of  the  British  Isles,  and  reached  Shetland.^ 

But  the  bold  and  hardy  explorer  does  not  seem  to  have 
stopped  here.  He  continued  his  course  northward  over  the 
ocean,  and  came  to  the  uttermost  region,  "  Thule,"  which  was 
the  land  of  the  midnight  sun,  "  where  the  tropic  coincides  with 
the  Arctic  Circle."  - 

On  this  section  of  P5rtheas's  voyage  Geminus  of  Rhodes  (ist 
century  B.C.)  has  an  important  quotation  in  his  Astronomy  [vi. 
9].  After  mentioning  that  the  days  get  longer  the  farther  north 
one  goes,  he  continues: 

To  these  regions  [i.e.,  to  the  north]  the  Massalian  Pytheas  seems  also  to 
have  come.  He  says  at  least  in  his  treatise  "On  the  Ocean":  "the  Barba- 
rians showed  us  the  place  where  the  sun  goes  to  rest.  For  it  was  the  case 
that  in  these  parts  the  nights  were  very  short,  in  some  places  two,  in  others 
three  hours  long,  so  that  the  sun  rose  again  a  short  time  after  it  had  set." 

The  name  of  Thule  is  not  mentioned,  but  that  must  be  the 
country  in  question.  It  does  not  appear  from  this  whether 
Pytheas  himself  thought  that  the  shortest  night  of  the  year 

1  It  may  be  possible,  as  many  think,  that  it  was  the  Shetlands  that  he  called 
Orkan  (or  Orkas) ;  but  the  more  reliable  of  the  known  quotations  from  him 
seem  rather  to  show  that  it  was  really  the  northernmost  point  of  Britain,  or 
the  neighboring  Orkneys  that  were  thus  called  by  him,  and  have  thencefor- 
ward been  known  by  that  name;  while  it  is  later  authors  who  have  extended 
the  name  also  to  Shetland.  If  this  supposition  be  correct:  that  the  islands 
north  of  Britain  mentioned  by  Pliny  [Nat.  Hist.  iv.  104]  are  originally  de- 
rived from  Pytheas,  which  may  be  doubtful,  and  that  Berricen  (or  Nerigon) 
is  Mainland  of  Shetland,  then  Orkan  cannot  apply  to  these.  But,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  it  is  very  doubtful  what  Plinsf's  islands  may  have  been  originally. 

=^  Cf.  Strabo  [iL  114]  and  Cleomedes  [i.  7].  The  Arctic  Circle  (or  Circle  of 
the  Bear)  was,  as  already  mentioned,  the  circle  round  the  celestial  pole  which 
formed  the  limit  of  the  continuously  visible  (circumpolar)  stars,  and  it  had 
been  given  this  name  because  in  Asia  Minor  (and  Greece)  it  ran  through  the 
Great  Bear  (Arctus).  Its  distance  in  degrees  from  the  north  celestial  pole  is 
equal  to  the  latitude  of  the  place  of  observation,  and  consequently  increases 
as  one  goes  farther  north.  At  the  polar  circle,  as  mentioned  above,  it  coin- 
cides with  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  and  at  the  North  Pole  with  the  Equator. 
Cleomedes  has  also  the  remarkable  statement  that  the  latitude  for  a  summer 
day  of  one  month  in  length  runs  through  Thule. 

S3 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

was  of  two  or  three  hours,  or  whether  that  was  the  length  of 
the  night  at  the  time  he  happened  to  be  at  these  places;  but 
the  first  case  is  doubtless  the  more  probable.  At  any  rate 
Geminus  seems  to  have  understood  him  thus,  since  in  the  passage 
immediately  preceding  he  is  speaking  of  the  regions  where  the 
longest  day  is  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  hours,  and  he  goes  on  to 
speak  of  those  where  the  longest  day  is  of  twenty-three  hours. 
If  on  the  other  hand  it  is  the  length  of  the  night  at  the  time 
Pytheas  was  there  that  is  meant,  then  it  seems  strange  that  he 
should  require  to  be  shown  by  the  barbarians  where  the  sun  rose 
and  set,  which  he  could  just  as  well  have  seen  for  himself;  for 
it  is  scarcely  credible  that  after  having  journeyed  so 
far  his  stay  should  have  been  so  brief  that  the  sky  was  over- 
cast the  whole  time.^ 

If  the  longest  day  of  the  year  was  determined  by  direct 
observations  of  the  points  at  which  the  sun  first  appeared  and 
finally  disappeared  in  places  with  a  free  horizon  to  the  north, 
then  days  of  twenty-one  and  twenty-two  hours  at  that  time 
will  answer  to  63°  39'  and  64°  and  39'  N.  lat.  Calculated  theo- 
retically, from  the  center  of  the  sun  and  without  taking  re- 
fraction into  account,  they  will  be  64°  32'  and  65°  31'  N.  lat. 
respectively.- 

In  addition  to  this  there  are  two  things  to  be  remarked 
in  the  passage  quoted  in  Geminus.  First,  that  the  country 
spoken  of  by  Pytheas  was  inhabited  (by  barbarians).  Secondly, 
that  he  himself  must  have  been  there  with  his  expedition,  for 
he  says  that  "  the  barbarians  showed  us,"  etc.  Consequently 
he  cannot,  as  some  writers  think,  have  reported  merely  what 
he  had  heard  from  others  about  this  country  (Thule).     State- 

1  It  may  be  thought  that  Pytheas  is  merely  relating  a  legend  current 
among  the  barbarians  that  the  sun  went  to  its  resting-place  during  the  night, 
a  myth  which  is  moreover  almost  universal.  But  it  seems  more  probable 
that  as  an  astronomer  he  had  something  else  in  his  mind.  If  he  had  had  the 
two  points  accurately  indicated  to  him,  where  the  sun  set  and  rose  on  the 
shortest  night  of  the  year,  he  must  easily  have  been  able,  by  measuring  the 
angle  between  them,  to  ascertain  how  long  the  sun  was  down. 

-  These  figures  are  kindly  supplied  by  Professor  H.  Geelmuyden. 

54 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

ments  in  Strabo  also  show  clearly  that  Pytheas  referred  to  Thule 
as  inhabited. 

Other  pieces  of  information  derived  from  Pytheas  establish 
consistently  that  Thule  extended  northwards  as  far  as  the 
Arctic  Circle.  Eratosthenes,  Strabo,  Pomponius  Mela,  Pliny, 
Cleomedes,  Solinus,  and  others,  all  have  statements  which  show 
clearly  that  Pytheas  described  Thule  as  the  land  of  the  mid- 
night sun. 

If  we  now  sum  up  what  is  known  of  Pytheas's  voyage  to 
the  North,  we  shall  find  that  it  all  hangs  well  together:  he 
first  came  to  the  north  of  Scotland,  where  the  longest  day 
was  of  eighteen  hours,  thence  to  Shetland  with  a  longest 
day  of  nineteen  hours,  and  then  to  a  land  beyond  all,  Thule, 
where  the  longest  day  was  in  one  place  twenty-one  hours 
and  in  another  twenty-two,  and  which  extended  northwards 
as  far  as  the  midnight  sun  and  the  Arctic  Circle  (at  that  time 
in  66°  15'  N.  lat.).  There  is  nothing  intrinsically  impossible 
in  the  supposition  that  this  remarkable  explorer,  who  besides 
being  an  eminent  astronomer  must  have  been  a  capable 
seaman,  had  heard  in  the  north  of  Scotland  of  an  inhabited 
country  still  farther  to  the  north,  and  then  wished  to  visit 
this  also.  We  must  remember  how,  as  an  astronomer,  he 
was  specially  interested  in  determining  the  extent  of  the 
"  oecumene  "  on  the  north,  and  in  seeing  with  his  own  eyes 
the  remarkable  phenomena  of  northern  latitudes,  in  par- 
ticular the  midnight  sun.  It  is  not  surprising  that  he  was 
prepared  to  risk  much  to  attain  this  end;  and  he  had  already 
shown  by  his  voyage  to  the  northernmost  point  of  Britain  that 
he  was  an  explorer  of  more  than  ordinary  boldness,  and  equal  to 
the  task. 

Nevertheless  it  has  seemed  incredible  to  many — not  only 
in  antiquity,  but  in  our  ovioi  time  as  well — that  Pytheas  should 
have  penetrated  not  only  so  far  into  the  unknown  as  to  the 
islands  north  of  Scotland,  but  that  he  should  have  ventured 
yet  farther  into  the  absolutely  unexplored  Northern  Ocean,  and 
found  an  extreme  country  beyond  this.     He  would  thus  have 

55 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

pushed  back  the  limit  of  the  learned  world's  knowledge  from 
the  south  coast  of  Britain  to  the  Arctic  Circle,  or  about  sixteen 
degrees  farther  north.  As  a  feat  of  such  daring  and  endurance 
has  appeared  superhuman,  a  great  deal  of  ingenuity  has  been 
employed,  especially  by  Miillenhoff  [1870,  i.,  pp.  392  f.], 
to  prove  that  Thule  was  Shetland,  that  Pytheas  himself  did 
not  get  farther  than  the  Orkneys  or  the  north  of  Scotland,  and 
that  he  heard  from  the  natives  of  the  country  still  farther 
north,  which  he  never  saw.  But  in  order  to  do  this  almost 
all  the  statements  that  have  been  preserved  on  this  part  of 
Pytheas's  voyage  must  be  arbitrarily  distorted;  and  to  alter 
or  explain  away  one's  authorities  so  as  to  make  them  fit  a 
preconceived  opinion  is  an  unfortunate  proceeding.  Unless, 
like  Polybius  and  Strabo,  we  are  willing  to  declare  the  whole 
to  be  a  freely  imaginative  work,  which  however  is  remarkably 
consistent,  we  must  try  to  draw  our  conclusions  from  the  state- 
ments in  the  authorities  as  they  stand,  and  in  that  case  it 
must  for  the  following  reasons  be  regarded  as  impossible  that 
Thule  means  Shetland: 

(i)  It  is  improbable  that  (as  Miillenhoff  asserts)  so  capable 
an  astronomer  as  Pytheas  should  have  made  a  mistake  of 
several  hours  when  he  gave  the  length  of  the  night  as  two 
or  three  hours.  There  is  little  intrinsic  probability  in 
the  conjecture  that  he  had  overcast  weather  all  the  time  he  was 
in  the  north  of  Scotland  and  Orkney,  and  therefore  relied 
on  the  approximate  statements  of  the  natives,  which  he 
did  not  fully  understand,  and  which  when  translated  into 
Greek  measures  of  time  might  produce  gross  errors.  But 
it  is  worse  when  we  look  at  it  in  connection  with  Hipparchus's 
statements  from  Pytheas,  that  in  Britain  the  longest  day 
was  of  eighteen  hours,  and  nineteen  hours  in  a  region  (i.e., 
Shetland)  farther  north,  where  the  sun  at  the  winter  solstice 
stood  less  than  three  cubits  above  the  horizon.  Unless  he 
has  given  the  latter  region  a  long  extension  to  the  north, 
he  must  have  made  several  conflicting  statements  about  the 
same  region.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  leads  us  to  a  violent 
56 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

and  arbitrary  alteration  of  the  whole  system  of  information,  which 
is  otherwise  consistent. 

(2)  The  assertion  that  Pytheas  did  not  himself  say  that  he 
had  been  in  the  country  where  the  night  was  two  and 
three  hours  long,  conflicts  with  the  words  of  Geminus. 
Cleomedes  also  tells  us  that  P5rtheas  is  said  to  have  been  in 
Thule. 

(3)  The  definite  statements  in  a  majority  of  the  authorities 
that  Thule  lay  within  the  Arctic  Circle  and  was  the  land  of  the 
midnight  sun,  also  exclude  the  Shetland  Isles.  The  astronomer 
Pytheas  cannot  have  been  so  far  mistaken  as  to  the  latitude  of 
these  islands. 

(4)  That  it  was  six  days'  sail  to  Thule  from  Britain  ^  will 
not  suit  Shetland,  even  if  we  make  allowance  for  the  frequently 
obscure  statements  as  to  the  days'  journeys  that  are  attributed 
to  Pytheas  (e.g.,  by  Strabo). 

(5)  That  Strabo  in  one  place  [ii.  114]  calls  Thule  "the 
northernmost  of  the  British  Isles "  cannot  be  used,  as 
Miillenhoff  uses  it,  as  a  proof  of  its  belonging  to  these  islands 
and  having  a  Celtic  population.  There  is  not  a  word  to  this 
effect.  To  Strabo,  who  also  placed  lerne  (Ireland)  out  in  the 
sea  north  of  Britain,  it  must  have  been  natural  to  call  all  the 
islands  in  that  part  of  the  world  British.  Indeed,  he  says 
himself  in  the  same  breath  that  Thule,  according  to  Pytheas, 
lay  within  the  Arctic  Circle.  How  little  weight  he  attached  to 
the  expression  British  is  additionally  apparent  from  another  pas- 
sage [ii.  75],  where  he  says  that  "  Hipparchus,  relying  on 
"  Pytheas,  placed  these  inhabited  regions  [Shetland]  farther 
"  north  than  Britain." 

(6)  Pliny  [Nat.  Hist.  iv.  104]  mentions  among  islands 
north  of  Britain  as  "  the  greatest  of  all,  '  Berricen,'  which  is 

1  According  to  existing  MSS.  of  Solinus  [c.  22]  it  was  five  days'  sail  to  Thule 
from  the  Orcades,  which  must  here  be  Shetland,  and  which  are  mentioned  as 
the  second  station  on  the  way  to  Thule;  the  Ebudes  (Hebrides)  were  the  first 
station.  Mommsen  [1895,  p.  219]  regards  the  passage  as  corrupt,  and  con- 
siders it  a  later  interpolation  of  between  the  7th  and  gth  centuries. 

57 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

"  the  starting-place  for  Thule."  Berricen,  which  in  some 
MSS.  is  written  "  Nerigon,"  has  been  taken  for  Mainland  of 
Shetland,'  while  others  have  seen  in  the  form  Nerigon  the  first 
appearance  in  literature  of  the  name  of  Norway  ("Noregr"),^ 
though  with  doubtful  justification,  since  this  name  was 
hardly  in  existence  at  that  time.  But  whether  the  island  be 
Shetland  or  Norway,  this  passage  in  Pliny  puts  Thule  outside 
the  Scottish  islands.  And  the  reference  to  that  country  makes 
it  probable  that  the  statements,  in  part  at  any  rate,  are  derived 
from  Pytheas. 

(7)  Finally,  it  may  perhaps  be  pointed  out  that  Thule  is 
nowhere  referred  to  as  a  group  of  islands;  the  name  rather 
suggests  the  idea  of  a  continuous  land  or  a  single  island. 
To  this  it  may  be  objected  that  neither  is  Orkan  referred  to 
as  an  archipelago  in  the  oldest  authorities;  but  it  is  uncertain 
whether  in  Pytheas,  as  in  Diodorus,  Orkan  was  not  used  of 
the  northern  point  of  Brettanice,  and  only  later  transferred  to 
the  islands  lying  to  the  north  of  this.  Thule,  on  the  other  hand, 
always  appears  as  a  land  far  out  in  the  ocean,  and  it  is 
moreover  uncertain  whether  P3rtheas  ever  expressly  described  it 
as  an  island. 

But  if  none  of  the  statements  about  Thule  answers  to 
Shetland,  it  becomes  a  question  where  we  are  to  look  for 
this    country.^     The    Irish    monk    Dicuil,    who    wrote    about 

^  Cf.  Brenner,  1877,  pp.  32,  98. 

2Cf.  Keyser  (1839),  1868,  p.  92. 

3  If  we  were  able  to  make  out  the  etymological  origin  of  the  name  Thule, 
it  would  perhaps  give  us  some  indication  of  where  we  ought  to  look  for  the 
country.  But  the  various  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  solve  this  riddle 
have  been  without  success.  It  has  been  asserted  by  several  authors  that  it 
comes  from  an  old  Gothic  word  "  tiele,"  or  "  tiule,"  which  is  said  to  mean 
limit  [cf.  Forbiger,  1842,  iii.  p.  312],  or  an  Old  Saxon  word  "  thyle,"  "  thul," 
"tell"  (or  "tell,"  "till,"  "tiul")  said  to  mean  the  same  [cf.  Markham,  1893, 
p.  519;  and  Callegari,  1904,  p.  47];  but  Professor  Alf  Torp,  whom  I  have  con- 
sulted, says  that  no  such  word  can  be  found  in  either  of  these  languages.  The 
word  has  been  further  erroneously  connected  with  the  name  Telemarken, 
which  accordingly  would  mean  borderland,  but  which  in  reality  must  be  de- 
rived from  the  Norwegian  word  "  tele,"  Old  Norse  "  l^eli,"  frozen  earth,  and  it 

58 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

825  A.D.,  regarded  it  as  self-evident  that  Iceland,  which  had 
then  been  discovered  by  Irish  monks,  must  be  Thule,  and 
called  it  so.     After  him  Adam   of  Bremen   and   many   others 

is  by  no  means  impossible  that  Thule  should  be  a  Greek  corruption  of  such  a 
word.  E.  Benedikson  has  supposed  that  Thule  might  come  from  a  Gallic 
word  "  houl,"  for  sun  [cf.  Callegari,  1904,  p.  47],  which  with  a  preposition 
"de"  (or  other  prefix)  might  have  been  thus  corrupted  in  Greek;  but  Pro- 
fessor Torp  informs  me  in  a  letter  that  no  such  Gallic  word  exists,  though 
there  is  a  Cymric  "  haul,"  "  which  in  Gallic  of  that  time  must  have  sounded  ap- 
proximately '  havel '  "  and  it  "  is  quite  impossible  that  a  preposition  or  prefix 
*  de '  could  have  coalesced  with  initial  '  h '  so  as  to  result  in  anything  like 
Thule."  The  Irish  "  temel  "  (Cymric  "  tywyll ")  for  dark,  which  has  also  been 
tried  [Keyser,  1839,  p.  397;  1868,  p.  166],  or  "tawel"  for  silent,  still  [Miillen- 
hoff,  1870,  i.  p.  408],  are  of  no  more  use,  according  to  Torp,  since  both  words 
at  that  time  had  "  m,"  which  has  later  become  "  w."  The  only  Celtic  root 
which  in  his  opinion  might  be  thought  of  is  " '  tel '  (  =  raise,  raise  oneself),  to 
which  the  Irish  '  telach '  and  '  tulach  '  (  =  a  height,  mound) ;  but  this  does  not 
seem  very  appropriate.  The  Germanic  form  of  this  root  is  '  thel '  (modifica- 
tion '  thul ') ;  but  in  Germanic  this  is  not  applied  to  soil  or  land  which  rises. 
I  cannot  find  anything  else,  either  in  Celtic  or  Germanic;  it  is  thus  impossible 
for  me  to  decide  to  which  of  the  languages  the  word  may  belong;  I  can  only 
say  that  the  Greek  0  (th)  rather  points  to  Germanic.  For  no  Celtic  word  be- 
gins with  an  aspirate,  whereas  Germanic  as  you  know,  has  transmutation  of 
consonants  (Indo-germanic  't'  to  '  th,'  etc.),  and  it  is  not  impossible  that 
this  sound-change  goes  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Pytheas."  Professor  Torp 
has  further  drawn  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  from  the  above-mentioned 
"  thel,"  raise  oneself,  is  formed  the  Old  Norse  "  ^ollr,"  three  (cf.  "  ^oll  "  =  fir- 
tree),  which  in  early  times  was  "  ^ull "  as  radical  form.  There  might  be  a 
bare  possibility  of  Thule  being  connected  with  this  word. 

If  it  should  appear,  as  hinted  here,  that  the  word  Thule  is  of  Germanic 
origin,  then  the  probability  of  the  country  lying  outside  the  British  Isles  would 
be  greatly  strengthened;  for  Britain  and  the  Scottish  Islands  were  at  that  time 
not  yet  inhabited  by  a  Germanic  race,  and  the  native  Celts  can  only  have 
known  a  Germanic  name  for  a  country  froni  its  owm  Germanic  inhabitants. 
This  land  farther  north  must  then  be  Norway. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  [cf.  Cuno,  1871,  i.  p.  102;  Mair,  1899,  p.  15]  that 
the  name  Thule  reminds  one  of  "  Tyle,"  the  capital  of  the  Celtic  colony  which 
was  established  in  Thrace  in  the  3rd  century  B.  C.  But  we  know  nothing  of 
the  origin  of  this  latter  name,  and  here  again  there  is  the  difficulty  that  it  be- 
gins with  "  t  "  and  not  "  th." 

It  may  be  further  mentioned  that  C.  Hoffmann  [1865,  p.  17]  has  suggested 
that  Thule  may  come  from  such  a  name  as  "  Thumla,"  which  in  the  Upsala 
Edda  [ii.  492]  is  the  name  of  an  unknown  island,  but  which  was  also  the  name 
of  an  island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Gota  river  (cf.  Thumlaheide  in  Hising).     He 

59 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

have  looked  upon  Iceland  as  the  Thule  of  the  ancients.  The 
objections  to  this  hypothesis  are :  first,  that  Thule  was  inhabited 
(cf.  Strabo,  Geminus,  and  others,  see  p.  53),  while  Iceland 
probably  was  not  at  that  time.  Even  in  Dicuil's  time 
only  a  few  monks  seem  to  have  lived  there  (see  below  on 
the  discovery  of  Iceland).  Nor  is  it  likely  that  Pytheas 
should  have  continued  his  voyage  at  haphazard  across  the  ocean, 
unless  he  had  heard  that  he  would  find  land  in  that  direction. 
To  this  must  be  added  that  Iceland  lies  so  far  away  that 
the  distance  of  six  days'  sail  will  not  suit  it  at  all.  Finally,  if 
Pytheas  had  sailed  northward  at  haphazard  from  Scotland  or 
from  Shetland,  the  least  likely  thing  to  happen  was  for  him 
to  be  carried  towards  Iceland;  neither  the  currents  nor  the  pre- 
vailing winds  bear  in  that  direction;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  would  carry  him  towards  Norway,  and  it  would  be  natural 
for  him  to  make  the  land  there,  perhaps  just  between  63°  and 
64°  N.  lat.  or  thereabouts. 

All  the  statements  about  Thule  which  have  been  preserved 
answer  to  Norway,'  but  to  no  other  country;  and  even  if  it 
may  seem  a  bold  idea  that  there  should  be  communication  over 
the  North  Sea  between  the  Scottish  islands  and  Norway  300 
years  before  Christ,  or  1000  years  before  the  age  of  the  Vikings, 
we  are  compelled  to  accept  it,  if  we  are  to  rely  upon  our  authori- 
ties as  they  stand,  without  arbitrarily  altering  them ;  and  Pytheas 
will  then  be  the  first  man  in  history  to  sail  over  the  North  Sea 
and  arrive  on  our  coasts.' 

thinks  that  a  Greek  could  not  pronounce  such  a  combination  of  sounds  as 
"ml"  (11?.),  but  would  pronounce  it  as  "1"  (A).  The  word  would  therefore 
become  "  Thula,"  or  according  to  the  usual  form  of  the  declension  "  Thule." 
Meanwhile  we  know  of  no  name  resembling  Thumla  for  any  district  which 
Pytheas  could  have  reached  from  Britain. 

^  That  Thule  was  Norway  or  Scandinavia  was  assumed  as  early  as  Pro- 
copius.  In  the  last  century  this  view  was  supported  by  Geijer,  1825;  Sven 
Nilsson,  1837;  R.  Keyser,  1839;  Petersen;  H.  J.  Thue,  1843,  and  others.  In 
recent  years  it  has  been  especially  maintained  by  Hergt,   1893. 

-  Miillenhoff's  reasons  for  supposing  that  Thule  cannot  have  been  Norway 
are  of  little  weight,  and  in  part  disclose  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  condi- 
tions. That  Pytheas,  if  he  came  to  Norway,  must  have  found  new  species  of 
60 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

That  Thule,  according  to  Strabo,  lies  six  days'  sail  "north 
of "  Brettanice  is  no  objection  to  its  being  Norway.  "  North 
of "  can  only  mean  "  farther  north  than,"  in  the  same  way 
that  Brittany  and  places  in  Britain  are  described  as  being 
so  many  stadia  north  of  Massalia.  It  also  looks  as  though 
Eratosthenes,  according  to  the  latitudes  and  distances  which 
he  has  taken  from  Pj^eas,  actually  puts  Thule  to  the  north- 
east of  Britain  (see  his  map,  p.  77),  or  precisely  where 
Norway  lies.  Besides,  Pytheas  had  no  means  of  determining 
his  course  in  overcast  weather,  or  of  fixing  the  longi- 
tude, for  which  reasons  he  supposed,  for  instance,  that  Cabasum 
(the  extreme  point  of  Brittany)  lay  farther  west  than  Cape 
Finisterre. 

That  Thule  is  often  referred  to  as  an  island  by  later  authors 
is  of  little  weight.  In  the  first  place  we  do  not  know  whether 
Pytheas  himself  so  described  it;  according  to  all  the  geo- 
graphical ideas  of  the  ancients  about  the  north  a  land  in  the 
ocean  farther  north  than  the  British  Isles  must  necessarily 
have  been  an  island,  even  if  Pytheas  did  not  say  so.  In  the 
next  place,  if  a  traveler  saUs  northwards,  as  he  did,  from  one 
island  to  another,  and  then  steers  a  course  over  the  sea  from 
Shetland  and  arrives  at  a  country  still  farther  north,  it  would 
be  unlikely  that  he  should  believe  himself  back  again  on  the 
continent.  Besides,  Pytheas  made  another  voyage  eastwards 
along  the  north  coast  of  Germany,  past  the  mouth  of  the 
Elbe,  and  then  he  had  the  sea  always  to  the  north  of  him  in 
the   direction   of  his   Thule.     In   order   to   discover   that   this 


animals  and  new  races  of  men,  especially  the  Lapps  with  their  reindeer,  which 
according  to  Miillenhoff,  he  evidently  did  not  find,  is,  for  instance,  an  unten- 
able assertion;  for  in  the  first  place  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  the  reindeer- 
Lapps  had  reached  Norway  so  early  as  that  time,  since  they  appear  to  be  a 
comparatively  late  immigration.  In  the  second  place,  if  they  were  really  al- 
ready living  in  Finmarken  and  the  northern  part  of  Helgeland  (Halogaland),  it 
is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  a  seafarer  who  went  along  the  coast  as  far  as 
to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Arctic  Circle  should  have  met  with  these  Lapps. 
Finally,  it  is  impossible  to  take  it  for  granted  that  Pytheas  did  not  mention  all 
the  things  that  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  chance  quotations  of  later  writers. 

61 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

land  was  connected  with  the  continent,  he  would  have  had  to 
sail  right  up  into  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia.  It  would  therefore 
have  been  illogical  of  Pytheas  if  he  had  not  conceived  Thule  as 
a  great  island,  as  in  fact  it  was  spoken  of  later.  It  is  men- 
tioned indeed  as  the  greatest  of  all  islands.  When  the  Ro- 
mans first  heard  of  Sweden  or  Scandinavia  (Skane)  in  the 
Baltic,  they  likewise  called  it  an  island,  and  so  it  was  long 
thought  to  be. 

According  to  what  has  been  advanced  above  we  must 
then  believe  that  Pytheas  had  already  received  information 
in  northern  Brettanice  or  in  the  Scottish  islands  about  Thule 
or  Norway  across  the  sea.  But  from  this  it  follows  that  in 
his  time,  or  more  than  a  thousand  years  before  the  beginning 
of  the  Viking  age,  there  must  have  been  communication 
by  sea  between  North  Britain  and  Norway.  It  may  seem 
that  this  is  putting  back  the  Norsemen's  navigation  of  the 
high  seas  to  a  very  remote  period ;  but  as  we  shall  see  in  a 
later  chapter  on  the  voyages  of  the  Norsemen,  there  are  good 
reasons  for  thinking  that  their  seafaring  is  of  very  ancient  date. 

Pytheas  may  have  sailed  from  Shetland  with  a  southwesterly 
wind  and  a  favorable  current  towards  the  northeast,  and  have 
arrived  off  the  coast  of  Norway  in  the  Romsdal  or  Nordmore 
district,  where  the  longest  day  of  the  year  was  of  twenty-one 
hours,  and  where  there  is  a  free  outlook  over  the  sea  to  the 
north,  so  that  the  barbarians  may  well  have  shown  him  where 
the  sun  went  to  rest.  From  here  he  may  then  have  sailed  north- 
wards along  the  coast  of  Helgeland,  perhaps  far  enough  to  en- 
able him  to  see  the  midnight  sun,  somewhat  north  of  Donna 
or  Bodo ;  this  depends  upon  how  early  in  the  summer  he  reached 
there.  On  midsummer  night  he  would  have  been  able  to  see 
a  little  of  the  midnight  sun  even  at  about  65^°  N.  lat. ;  or  south 
of  Vega.* 

1  The  Arctic  Circle  at  that  time  lay  in  66°  15'  20".    If  we  put  the  horizontal 

refraction  plus  the  sun's  semi-diameter  at  50'  in  round  figures,  then  the  upper 
edge  of  the  sun  would  be  visible  at  midnight  at  the  summer  solstice  a  little 
north  of  65°  25'. 
62 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

It  is  nowhere  expressly  stated  that  Pytheas  himself  saw 
the  midnight  sun;  but  a  passage  in  Pomponius  Mela  [iii.  6,  57] 
may  perhaps  point  to  this.  He  says  of  Thule :  "  but  at  the  sum- 
"  mer  solstice  there  is  no  night  there,  since  the  sun  then  no 
"  longer  shows  merely  a  reflection,  but  also  the  greater  part 
"  of  itself."  It  is  most  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  state- 
ment is  due  to  actual  observation ;  for  if  it  were  only  a  theoretical 
conclusion  it  seems  extraordinary  that  he  should  not  rather 
mention  that  the  whole  of  the  sun  is  above  the  horizon  in 
northern  regions,  which  was  clearly  enough  grasped  long  before 
his  time  (cf.  for  instance  Geminus  of  Rhodes).  Now  it  may, 
of  course,  be  thought  that  such  an  observation  was  made  by 
people  who  came  from  northernmost  Europe  later  than  Pytheas' 
time  and  before  Mela  wrote;  but  so  long  as  we  do  not  know  of 
any  such  authority  it  is  doubtless  more  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  like  so  many  other  pieces  of  information  it  is  derived  from 
Pytheas. 

Strabo  has  a  statement  about  what  Pytheas  said  of  the  peo- 
ples of  the  northernmost  regions.  In  a  special  section  wherein 
he  is  speaking  of  Thule,  and,  as  usual,  trying  to  cast  suspicion 
on  Pytheas'  veracity,  he  says: 

Yet  as  far  as  celestial  phenomena  and  mathematical  calculations  are  con- 
cerned, he  seems  to  have  handled  these  subjects  fairly  well.  [Thus  he  says 
not  inappropriately  that]  in  the  regions  near  the  cold  zone  the  finer  fruits  are 
lacking  and  there  are  few  animals,  and  that  the  people  live  on  millet  [i.e.,  oats] 
and  other  things,  especially  green  vegetables,  wild  fruits  and  roots;  but  among 
those  that  have  corn  and  honey  they  make  a  drink  thereof.  But  because  they 
have  no  clear  sunshine  they  thresh  the  corn  in  large  buildings  after  the  ears 
have  been  brought  thither;  for  it  becomes  spoilt  on  the  open  threshing-floors 
by  reason  of  the  want  of  sunshine  and  the  heavy  showers. 

As  Diodorus  [v.  21]  says  something  similar  about  the 
harvest  in  Britain,  it  seems  possible  that  Strabo  is  here  thinking 
rather  of  what  Pytheas  had  said  in  a  more  general  way  about 
the  peoples  near  the  cold  regions,  than  of  his  observations 
on  the  actual  inhabitants  of  Thule,  though  as  already  remarked 
the  passage  occurs  in  a  section  devoted  to  the  latter.  The 
mention  of  honey  may  strengthen  this  view;  for  even  though 

63 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

bee  keeping  is  now  practised  in  Norway  as  far  north  as 
Hedemarken,  and  also  on  the  west  coast,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
such  was  the  case  at  that  time,  though  it  is  not  impossible. 
That  wild  honey  is  alluded  to.  or  honey  imported  from  abroad, 
is  improbable. 

In  the  MSS.  of  Solinus  there  is  a  statement  about  the 
people  of  Thule  which  will  be  referred  to  later.  Even  if  the 
passage  were  genuine  it  could  hardly,  as  some  have  thought, 
be  derived  from  Pytheas;  in  any  case  it  does  not  agree  with 
what  he  is  said  by  Strabo  to  have  related  of  the  people  of  the 
North.  In  particular  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  while  the  in- 
habitants of  Thule  according  to  the  Solinus  MSS.  lived  prin- 
cipally as  herdsmen,  and  are  not  spoken  of  as  agriculturists, 
Strabo  says  nothing  about  cattle,  but  on  the  contrary  calls  them 
tillers  of  the  soil.  In  both  accounts  they  also  live  on  herbs  and 
wild  fruits;  but,  in  spite  of  that,  these  two  passages  cannot  be 
derived  from  the  same  description.  It  is  true  that  Strabo  was 
not  acquainted  with  Pytheas'  original  work,  in  which  other  north- 
ern peoples  may  have  been  referred  to;  but  this  is  not  very 
likely. 

Most  writers  have  thought  that  Pytheas  completed  his 
voyage  in  comparatively  few  months,  and  that  he  was  only 
some  few  days  in  Thule;  while  others  have  considered  that 
he  spent  many  years  over  it.^  There  is  no  cogent  reason  for 
assuming  this.  As  regards  the  first  hypothesis,  it  is  by  no 
means  impossible  that  he  should  have  sailed  from  Spain  to 
Helgeland  in  Norway  and  back  again  in  one  summer.  But  as 
the  greater  part  of  the  voyage  lay  through  unknown  regions, 
and  as  he  frequently  stopped  to  investigate  the  country  and  the 
people,  he  cannot  have  proceeded  very  rapidly.  To  this  must 
probably  be  added  that  he  often  had  to  barter  with  the  natives 

1  Cf.  Markham,  1893.  If  the  longest  day  of  the  year  is  given  in  the  different 
authorities  (Strabo,  Geminus,  etc.)  at  various  places  as  seventeen,  eighteen, 
nineteen  hours,  etc.,  after  the  statements  of  Pytheas,  it  must  not,  of  course,  be 
assumed  that  Pytheas  was  at  each  of  these  places  precisely  on  Midsummer 
Day.    It  was  only  one  of  the  Greek  methods  of  indicating  the  latitude  of  places. 

64 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

to  obtain  the  necessary  provisions,  since  he  certainly  cannot  have 
carried  stores  for  so  long  a  time.  It  therefore  seems  doubtful 
whether  he  was  ready  to  return  the  same  summer  or  autumn, 
and  it  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  wintered  at  some 
place  on  the  way. 

Whether  it  be  Thule  or  Britain  that  is  referred  to  in  the 
passage  quoted  above  from  Strabo,  it  seems  to  imply  that  he 
was  in  one  of  those  countries  at  the  harvest,  and  saw 
there  the  gathering-in  of  the  com;  but,  of  course,  there  is 
also  the  possibility  that  the  people  may  have  told  him 
about  it  (through  interpreters) :  and  more  than  that  we 
can  scarcely  say.  It  might  be  objected  that  if  Pytheas 
had  spent  a  winter  in  Norway  it  is  probable  that  he  would 
have  furnished  many  details,  remarkable  at  that  time,  about 
the  northern  winter,  of  which  we  hear  nothing  in  any  of  our 
authors.  But  it  must  always  be  remembered  how  utterly 
casual  and  defective  are  the  quotations  from  him  which 
have  been  preserved,  and  how  little  we  know  of  what  he 
really  related. 

P5rtheas  also  furnishes  information  about  the  sea  on  the  other 
side  of  Thule.  This  may  be  concluded  from  the  following  pas- 
sages in  particular : 

Strabo  says  [i.  63] :  "  Thule,  which  Pytheas  says  lies 
"  six  days'  sail  north  of  Brettanice,  and  is  near  to  the  congealed 
"  sea  (Tsrrij^oTa  ddXarra^  i.e.,  the  Polar  Sea)," 

Pliny  [iv.  16  (30)]:  "After  one  day's  sail  from  Thule 
"  the  frozen  sea  ('  mare  concretum ')  is  reached,  called  by 
"  some  *  Cronium.'  "  ^ 


1  The  origin  of  this  name  for  the  northernmost  or  outer  sea,  which  occurs 
in  several  authors,  is  somewhat  uncertain.  It  is  usually  supposed  [cf.  Hergt, 
1893,  p.  71]  that  it  comes  from  the  Greek  god  "Cronos"  (Latin  "Saturn"). 
R.  Keyser  [1839,  p.  396,  1868,  p.  165]  thought  (after  Toland  in  1725)  that  it 
was  of  Celtic  origin  and  cognate  with  the  Welsh  "  croni,"  to  collect  together; 
"  Muircroinn "  was  supposed  still  to  be  Irish  for  the  Polar  Sea,  and  to  have 
some  such  meaning  as  the  curdled  sea;  but  no  such  word  is  to  be  found  in 
Irish  or  Old  Irish  [cf.  Miillenhoff,  1870,  p.  415]. 

65 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Solinus  [22,  11]:  "Beyond^  Thule  we  meet  with  the  slug- 
"  gish  and  congealed  sea  ('  pigrum  et  concretum  mare  ')." 

Finally  we  have  a  well-known  passage  in  Strabo  [ii.  104] 
which  says  that  Pytheas  asserted  that  in  addition  to  having 
visited  the  whole  of  Britain     .     .     . 

He  had  also  undertaken  investigations  concerning  Thule  and  those  regions, 
in  which  there  was  no  longer  any  distinction  of  land  or  sea  or  air,  but  a  mix- 
ture of  the  three  like  sea-lung,  in  which  he  says  that  land  and  sea  and  every- 
thing floats,  and  this  [i.e.,  the  mixture]  binds  all  together,  and  can  neither  be 
traversed  on  foot  nor  by  boat.  The  substance  resembling  lung  he  has  seen 
himself,  as  he  says;  the  rest  he  relates  according  to  what  he  has  heard. 
This  is  Pytheas'  tale,  and  he  adds  that  when  he  returned  here,  he  visited  the 
whole  ocean  coast  of  Europe  from  Gadeira  to  Tanais. 

This  much-disputed  description  of  the  sea  beyond  Thule  has 
first  passed  through  Polybius,  who  did  not  believe  in  Pytheas 
and  tried  to  throw  ridicule  upon  him.  Whether  Polybius 
obtained  it  directly,  or  at  second-hand  through  some  older 
writer,  we  do  not  know.  From  him  it  came  down  to  Strabo, 
who  had  as  little  belief  in  it,  and  was,  moreover,  liable  to 
misunderstand  and  to  be  hasty  in  his  quotations.  The  passage 
is  evidently  torn  from  its  context  and  has  been  much  abbre- 
viated in  order  to  accentuate  its  improbability.  It  is,  therefore, 
impossible  to  decide  what  Pytheas  himself  said.  As  it  has 
come  down  to  us  the  passage  is  extremely  obscure,  and  it 
does  not  even  appear  clearly  how  much  Pytheas  asserted 
that  he  had  himself  seen,  and  how  much  he  had  heard; 
whether  he  had  only  heard  of  the  stiffened  and  congealed 
sea  (the  Polar  Sea),  while  he  had  really  seen  the  condition 
that  he  compared  to  a  lung.  As  to  the  meaning  of  this  word 
there  have  been  many  and  very  different  guesses.  Some 
have  thought  that  a  common  jelly-fish  may  have  been  called 
a  sea-lung  in  the  Mediterranean  countries  at  that  time,  in 
analogy  to  its  German  designation,  "  Meerlunge."  It  may 
also   be    thought    that    Pytheas    merely    wished    to    describe    a 

'  Hergt  [1893,  p.  71]  lays  stress  on  the  use  of  "  ultra  "  here  and  not  "  trans," 
and  thinks  that  this  does  not  indicate  an  immediate  connection  with  Thule, 
but  that  we  must  rather  suppose  an  intervening  space  (?). 

66 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

spongy,  soft  mass,  like  an  ordinary  lung.'  In  both  cases  the 
description  may  mean  a  gelatinous  or  pulpy  mass,  and  what 
Pytheas  himself  saw  may  have  been  the  ice  sludge  in  the  sea 
which  is  formed  over  a  great  extent  along  the  edge  of  the 
drift  ice,  when  this  has  been  ground  to  a  pulp  by  the  action 
of  waves.  The  expression  "  can  neither  be  traversed  on 
foot  nor  by  boat,"  is  exactly  applicable  to  this  ice-sludge. 
If  we  add  to  this  the  thick  fog,  which  is  often  found  near  drift 
ice,  then  the  description  that  the  air  is  also  involved  in  the 
mixture,  and  that  land  and  sea  and  everything  is  merged  in 
it,  will  appear  very  graphic.  But  that  Pytheas  should  have 
been  far  enough  out  in  the  sea  north  of  Norway  to  have  met 
with  drift  ice  is  scarcely  credible.-  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  wintered  in  Norway,  he  may  well  have  seen  something 
similar  on  a  small  scale.  Along  the  Norwegian  coast,  in  the 
Skagerak,  there  may  be  ice  and  ice-sludge  enough  in  the  late 
winter,  and  in  the  fjords  as  well;  but  in  that  case  it  is 
probable  that  he  would  also  have  seen  solid  ice  in  the  fjords, 
and  would  have  been  able  to  give  a  clearer  description  of  the 
whole,  which  would  have  left  no  room  for  such  misunder- 
standings on  the  part  of  Polybius  and  Strabo.  It  may  also 
appear  unlikely  that  Pytheas  should  not  have  known  ice 
before;  he  must,  one  would  think,  have  seen  it  on  pools 
of  water  in  the  winter  even  in  Massalia,  and  from  the  Black 
Sea  ice  was,  of  course,  well  known  to  the  Greeks.  But  then 
it  is  strange  that  he  should  have  given  such  an  obscure  de- 
scription of  such  a  condition,  and  have  said  that  the  land 
was  also  involved  in  the  mixture;  unless  we  are  to  regard 
the  whole  passage  as  figurative,  in  which  case  the  word  land 

1  Perhaps  it  is  worth  while  to  remark  in  this  connection  that  on  its  second 
occurrence  in  the  quotation  the  word  is  simply  "  lung  "  and  not  "  sea-lung." 
If  this  is  not  to  be  looked  upon  merely  as  an  abbreviation,  it  may  indicate  that 
the  writer  was  really  thinking  of  a  bodily  lung  [cf.  Hergt.,  1893,  p.  74]. 

-  It  has  occurred  that  drift-ice  has  been  brought  as  far  as  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Shetland  by  the  East  Icelandic  Pclar  current;  but  this  is  so  entirely 
exceptional  that  it  cannot  be  argued  that  Pytheas  might  have  seen  drift-ice 
there. 

67 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

may  be  taken  as  an  expression  for  the  solid  as  opposed  to  the 
liquid  form  (the  sea)  and  the  gaseous  (the  air). 

It  appears  most  probable  that  Pytheas  himself  never  saw 
the  Polar  Sea,  but  heard  something  about  it  from  the  natives/ 
and  his  description  of  the  outer  ocean  has  then  been  colored 
by  older  Greek,  or  even  Phoenician  ideas.^  It  may  suggest 
the  old  conception,  which  we  find  even  in  Homer,  that 
at  the  extreme  limits  of  the  world,  heaven,  earth,  ocean  and 
Tartarus  meet.  To  this  may  possibly  have  been  added 
Platonic  ideas  of  an  amalgamation  of  the  elements,  earth, 
sea,  and  air;  and  this  may  have  led  to  a  general  sup- 
position that  in  the  outer  ocean  everything  was  merged 
in  a  primeval  chaos  which  was  neither  solid,  liquid,  nor 
gaseous.  It  is  further  legitimate  to  suppose  that  Pytheas 
in  the  course  of  his  voyage  in  northern  waters  may  have 
thought  in  some  way  or  other  that  he  had  found  indications 
of  such  a  state  of  things  as  pointed  out  by  Kahler  [1903],  for 
example,  when  he  arrived  at  the  flat  coasts  of  Holland 
and  North  Germany  (die  Wattenzone),  where  the  sea  at  high 
water  pours  in  over  the  swampy  land  through  a  network  of 
innumerable  channels,  which  might  suggest  the  idea  of  a  lung, 
and  where  the  peat  bogs  are  sometimes  impossible  to  traverse, 
being  neither  land  nor  sea.  If  P5^heas  said  that  this  was 
like  a  lung,  he  can  only  have  used  the  word  as  a  figure  of 
speech,  for  it  is  incredible  that  he  should  have  really  regarded 
this  as  the  lung  of  the  sea,  whose  breathing  was  the  ebb  and 

^  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  he  was  able  to  converse  with  the  natives; 
but  probably  he  took  interpreters  with  him.  In  the  south  of  England,  for  in- 
stance, he  may  have  found  people  who  had  come  in  contact  through  the  tin- 
trade  with  the  Mediterranean  peoples  and  understood  their  languages,  and 
who  could  thus  act  as  interpreters  with  the  Celts.  It  would  not  be  so  easy 
with  the  Germanic  people  of  Thule.  But  in  Scotland  he  may  have  found  Celts 
who  understood  the  speech  of  Thule,  and  who  could  act  as  interpreters 
through  the  more  southern  Celtic  people. 

-  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  Avienus  ascribes  even  to  Himilco 
some  similar  ideas  of  the  extreme  parts  of  the  ocean;  and  that  Aristotle 
thought  that  the  sea  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  was  muddy  and  shallow 
and  little  stirred  by  the  winds. 

68 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

flood,  as  he  had  discovered  the  connection  between  the  tides  and 
the  moon. 

Other  interpretations  are  also  possible ;  but  as  we  do  not 
know  what  Pytheas  really  said,  a  true  solution  of  the  riddle  is 
unattainable,  and  it  is  vain  to  speculate  further  upon  it.  In  any 
case  one  thing  is  certain :  his  description  of  the  outer  ocean  gave 
rise  to  an  idea  in  the  minds  of  others  that  it  was  sluggish  and 
stiffened,  or  congealed,  a  conception  which  is  current  with  most 
later  authors  who  have  written  on  it,  far  down  into  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  is  the  same  idea  which  we  recognize  as  the  congealed 
("  geliberot ")  sea  in  the  "  Meregarto  "  and  under  the  name  of 
"  Lebermeer  "  in  German  mediaeval  poetry,  "  la  mar  betee  "  in 
French,  and  "  la  mar  betada  "  in  Provengal  poetry.  Seafaring 
peoples  between  the  Red  and  the  Yellow  Seas  have  similar 
tales,'  but  whether  they  are  due  to  Greek  influence  or  the  re- 
verse is  not  easy  to  decide. 

Since  Pytheas,  as  mentioned  above,  was  probably  acquainted 
with  both  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  Britain,  we  must  assume 
either  that  on  his  way  back  from  Norway  he  sailed  southwards 
along  the  side  which  he  had  not  seen  on  his  voyage  north- 
wards— or  else  that  he  made  more  than  one  voyage  to  Britain. 
From  Strabo  (see  above,  p.  66)  we  know  that  Pytheas  also 
asserted  that  he  had  visited  "  the  whole  ocean  coast  of  Europe 
from  Gadeira  to  Tanais,"  and  that  he  had  furnished  informa- 
tion "  about  the  Ostiaei "  and  the  countries  beyond  the  Rhine 
as  far  as  the  Scythians,"  all  of  which  Strabo  looks  upon  as 
imaginary.  As  Thule  is  never  alluded  to  as  lying  north  of 
these  regions,  but  always  as  north  of  Britain,  we  cannot 
believe  that  he  went  straight  from  Norway  south  or  south- 
eastwards  to  Jutland  or  the  north  coast  of  Germany.  The 
meaning  of  Strabo's  words  must  be  that  he  claimed  to  have 
sailed  along  the  west  and  north-west  coast  of  Europe   (which 

1  According  to  a  communication  from  Professor  Moltke  Moe. 

-  It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  this  name,  which  may  remind  one  of 
the  "  ^stii "  (Esthonians)  mentioned  by  Tacitus,  is  really  a  clerical  error  for 
"  Ostimii." 

69 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

looks  towards  the  ocean)  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Asia,  since 
Tanais  (the  Don)  was  generally  used  as  defining  the  frontier  of 
the  two  continents. 

We  do  not  know  when  Pytheas  undertook  this  voyage; 
but  the  passage  quoted  from  Strabo  [ii.  104]  points  to  some 
time  after  the  journey  to  Thule.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason 
for  believing  that  it  was  all  accomplished  at  one  time,  or  even 
in  one  year,  as  some  will  have  it.  It  is  more  probable  that 
a  discoverer  and  explorer  like  Pytheas  made  several  voyages, 
according  as  he  had  opportunity;  and  the  rich  commercial  city 
of  Massalia  was  greatly  interested  in  the  communications 
with  the  tin  and  amber  countries,  and  in  hearing  about 
them. 

On  his  voyage  along  the  coast  beyond  the  Rhine,  Pytheas 
must  have  come  to  an  island  where  there  was  amber,  for 
according  to  Pliny  [Nat.  Hist.,  xxxvii.  2,  11]:  "Pytheas 
"  relates  that  the  '  Gutones,'  a  Germanic  people,  dwelt  on  a 
"  bay  of  the  sea  ('  ^stuarium ')  called  '  Metuonidis,'  '  the 
"  extent  of  which  was  6000  stadia.  From  thence  it  was  one 
"  day's  sail  to  the  island  of  '  Abalus.'  Here  in  the  spring  the 
"  waves  cast  up  amber,  which  is  washed  out  of  the  congealed 
"sea  ['mare  concretum,'  the  Polar  Sea].  The  natives  use  it 
"  instead  of  wood  for  fire,  and  sell  it  to  the  neighboring  Teutons. 
"This  was  also  believed  by  Timaeus,  but  he  calls  the  island 
"  '  Basilia.'  " 

It  is  possible  that  this  island,  Abalus,  is  the  same  as  the 
amber  island  mentioned  in  another  passage  of  Pliny  [iv.  13,  27], 
where  he  says  of  the  Scythian  coast  that  there  are  reports  of 
"  many  islands  without  a  name,  and  Timasus  relates  that 
"  among  them  is  one  off  Scythia,  a  day's  sail  away,  which  is 
"  caUed  '  Baunonia,'  and  on  which  the  waves  cast  up  amber  in 

1  The  more  usual  spelling  "  Memtonomon  "  (after  some  MSS.)  can  hardly  be 
right  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1904,  p.  9].  The  name  may  be  connected  with  the  Frisian 
"  meden  "  (Old  Frisian  "  mede  "  or  "  medu,"  English  "  meadow  ")  for  low- 
lying,  swampy  pasture,  and  in  that  case  would  suit  the  German  North  Sea 
Coast  well,  between  the  Rhine  and  Sleswick-Holstein. 
70 


PYTHEAS    OF    MASSALIA 

"the  springtime."  In  any  case  they  are  both  mentioned  in 
very  similar  terms  [cf.  Hergt,  1893,  p.  31,  f.].  In  the  same 
place  we  read  that  "  Xenophon,  of  Lampsacus  [about 
"  100  B.C.],  mentions  that  three  days'  sail  from  the  Scythian 
"  coast  there  is  an  island  called  '  Balcia,'  of  immense  size. 
"  Pytheas  calls  it  '  Basilia.'  "  This  conflicts  with  the  passage 
quoted  above  from  Pliny,  and  here  there  must  be  a  misunder- 
standing or  confusion  of  some  kind,  either  on  the  part  of 
Pliny  or  of  his  authority.  A  possible  explanation  may  be 
that  Pytheas  referred  to  his  island  of  Abalus  as  a  ^aaiksna 
vTi<so<s^  i.e.,  an  island  with  a  king  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1904,  p.  18]. 
This  would  agree  with  the  statement  of  Diodorus  Siculus 
(ist  century  B.C.)  [v.  23],  which  he  gives  without  quoting 
any  authority :  "  Just  opposite  Scythia,  above  Galatia 
"  [Gaul]  an  island  lies  in  the  ocean  called  '  Basilia ' ;  upon 
"  it  amber  is  cast  up  by  the  waves,  which  is  otherwise 
"  not  found  in  any  place  on  the  earth."  It  is  probable  that 
this  is  taken  from  Timasus  and  originally  derived  from 
P3rtheas,  and  that  the  island  is  the  same  as  Abalus.  It  is  to 
be  noticed  that  in  Pytheas'  time  the  name  Germania  was 
not  yet  used;  northern  Europe,  east  of  the  Rhine,  was  counted 
as  Scythia,  whereas  the  name  Germania  was  well  known  in  the 
time  of  Diodorus. 

Pytheas  may  also  have  heard  of,  or  visited,  a  country 
or  a  large  island  (Jutland?),  which  lay  three  days'  sail  from  the 
coast  he  was  sailing  along,  and  he  may  likewise  have  referred  to 
it  as  a  king's  island  (/Sajasta).  Timaeus,  or  others,  may  have 
taken  this  for  a  name,  both  for  Abalus  and  for  this  larger 
and  more  distant  island,  which  has  later  been  assumed  to  be  the 
same  as  Balcia,  a  name  that  may  be  derived  either  from  Pytheas 
or  from  some  later  writer. 

As  the  Gutones  resembles  the  Gytoni  (Goths)  of  Tacitus,  who 
lived  on  the  Vistula,  and  as  further  Basilia  and  Balcia  were 
the  same  country,  the  name  of  which  was  connected  with  that 
of  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  as  this  country  was  identified  with  the 
south  of  Sweden,  it  was  thought  that  Pytheas  must  have  been 

71 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

in  the  amber  country  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Baltic,  and  even 
in  Skane.  This  view  may  appear  to  be  supported  by  the  fact 
that  Strabo  says  he  lied  about  the  "  Ostiasi,"  who  might 
then  be  the  Esthonians.  But  as  already  remarked  this  word 
may  be  an  error  for  "  Ostimians  " ;  and  Gutones  may  further 
be  an  error  for  Teutones,  since  a  carelessly  written  Tzo  may 
easily  be  read  as  Toy  [cf.  Hergt,  1893,  p.  33],  and  immedi- 
ately afterwards  it  is  stated  that  the  Teutones  (not  Gutones) 
lived  near  Abalus.  Whether  Pytheas  really  mentioned 
"  Balcia  "  or  "  Baltia  "  is,  as  already  remarked,  extremely  doubt- 
ful; but  even  if  he  did  so,  and  even  if  it  lay  in  the  Baltic, 
it  is  not  certain  that  he  was  there,  and  he  may  only  have  been 
told  about  it.  We  need  not  therefore  believe  that  he  went 
farther  than  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea.  "  Abalus " 
may  have  been  Heligoland  [cf.  Hergt],  or  perhaps  rather 
one  of  the  islands  of  Sleswick,^  where  beach-washed  amber  is 
common,  as  along  the  whole  west  coast  of  Jutland.  The  state- 
ment that  the  natives  used  amber  as  fuel  is  a  misunderstanding, 
which  may  be  due  to  a  discovery  of  P3^heas  that  amber  was 
combustible.  If  he  had  really  sailed  past  the  Skaw  and  through 
the  Belts  into  the  Baltic,  it  is  unlikely  that  he  should  only  have 
mentioned  one  amber  island  Abalus,  and  another  immense  island 
farther  off.  We  should  expect  him  to  have  changed  the  ideas  of 
his  time  about  these  regions  to  a  greater  extent  than  this.  It  is 
true  that  he  might  have  travelled  overland  to  the  south 
coast  of  the  Baltic;  but  neither  is  this  very  probable.  It  must 
nevertheless  be  borne  in  mind,  as  will  be  pointed  out  later,  that 
until  Strabo's  time  no  other  voyages  in  these  regions 
were  known  in  literature,  and  it  is,  therefore,  possible  that 
much  of  what  we  find  in  Mela  and  Pliny  on  the  subject  was 
originally   derived  from  Pytheas.     If  we  did  not  possess  this 

1  The  name  may  have  some  connection  with  those  of  Habel  and  Appeland 
among  the  Halligen  Islands  on  the  west  coast  of  Sleswick  [cf.  Detlefsen,  190^, 
p.  60].  It  also  has  some  resemblance  to  "  Sabalingii,"  which  is  given  by 
Ptolemy  as  the  name  of  a  tribe  in  Jutland.  The  name  Abalus  (Greek,  Abalos) 
has  a  remarkable  likeness  to  Avalon  (the  apple-island)  of  Welsh  folk-lore, 
and  it  is  possibly  originally  the  same  word  (?). 

72 


PYTHEAS    OF   MASSALIA 

one  chance  passage  in  Pliny  about  Abalus  and  the  amber,  we 
should  not  know  that  Pytheas  had  said  anything  about  it.  But 
of  how  much  more  are  we  ignorant  for  want  of  similar  casual 
quotations? 

Little  as  we  know  of  P)rtheas  himself,  he  yet  ap- 
pears to  us  as  one  of  the  most  capable  and  undaunted  explorers 
the  world  has  seen.  Besides  being  the  first,  of  whom  we  have 
certain  record,  to  sail  along  the  coasts  of  northern  Gaul  and  Ger- 
many, he  was  the  discoverer  of  Great  Britain,  of  the  Scottish 
isles  and  Shetland,  and  last  but  not  least,  of  Thule  or  Norway, 
as  far  north  as  to  the  Arctic  Circle.  No  other  single  traveller 
known  to  history  has  made  such  far-reaching  and  important  dis- 
coveries. 

But  Pytheas  was  too  far  in  advance  of  his  time;  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  new  lands  in  the  North  was  so  pronounc- 
edly antagonistic  to  current  ideas  that  it  won  little  acceptance 
throughout  the  whole  succeeding  period  of  antiquity.  His 
younger  contemporary,  Dicaearchus,  doubted  him,  and 
Polybius  and  Strabo,  who  came  two  hundred  and  three 
hundred  years  later,  endeavored,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
throw  suspicion  upon  Pytheas  and  to  stamp  him  as  an 
impostor.  The  two  eminent  geographers  and  astronomers, 
Eratosthenes  and  Hipparchus,  seem  to  have  valued  him 
more  according  to  his  deserts.  Polybius's  desire  to  lessen 
the  fame  of  Pytheas  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  the  former,  a  friend  of  Scipio,  had  taken  part  in  many 
Roman  campaigns,  and  claimed  to  be  more  widely  travelled 
than  any  other  geographer.  But  as  his  farthest  north 
was  the  south  of  Gaul,  he  did  not  like  the  idea  that 
an  earlier  traveller,  who  enjoyed  great  renown,  should  have 
penetrated  so  much  farther  into  regions  which  were  en- 
tirely unknown  to  himself.  Men  are  not  always  above  such 
littleness. 


73 


The  World  according  to  Strabo   [K.  Kretschmer,  1892] 

CHAPTER   III 
ANTIQUITY,  AFTER  PYTHEAS 

THERE  was  a  long  interval  after  the  time  of  Pytheas 
before  the  world's  knowledge  of  the  North  was  again 
added  to,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  literature  that  has 
come  down  to  us.  The  mist  in  which  for  a  moment  he 
showed  a  ray  of  light  settled  down  again.  That  no  other 
know  traveller  can  have  penetrated  into  these  northern  re- 
gions during  the  next  two  or  three  centuries  appears  from 
the  unwillingness  of  Polybius  and  Strabo  to  believe  in 
Pytheas,  and  from  the  fact  that  Strabo  pronounces  him  a 
liar  [i.  63],  because  "all  who  have  seen  Britain  and  lerne 
"  say  nothing  about  Thule,  though  they  mention  other  small 
"  islands  near  Britain " ;  furthermore,  he  says  expressly 
[vii.  294]  that  "  the  region  along  the  ocean  beyond  Albis 
"  [the  Elbe]  is  entirely  unknown  to  us.  For  neither  do  we 
"  know  of  any  one  among  the  ancients  who  made  this  voyage 
"  along  the  coast  in  the  eastern  regions  to  the  opening  of  the 
"  Caspian  Sea,  nor  have  the  Romans  ever  penetrated  into  the 
74 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

"  countries  beyond  Albis,  nor  has  any  one  yet  traversed  them 
"  by  land."  If  any  other  traveller  had  been  currently  mentioned 
in  literature  it  is  incredible  that  the  well-read  Strabo  should  not 
have  known  it.  He  therefore  ascribed  all  that  he  found  about 
these  regions  to  Pytheas. 

There  are  nevertheless  indications  that  the  Greeks  had 
commercial  relations  with  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  and  North 
Sea,  and  fresh  obscure  statements,  which  may  be  derived 
from  such  a  cormection,  appear  later  in  Pliny,  and  to  some 
extent  also  in  Mela.  It  may  be  supposed  that  enterprising 
Greek  traders  and  seamen,  enticed  by  Pytheas's  accounts  of 
the  amber  country,  attempted  to  follow  in  his  track,  and 
succeeded  in  reaching  the  land  of  promise  whence  this  costly 
commodity  came.  And  if  they  had  once  found  out  the  way, 
they  would  certainly  not  have  relinquished  it  except  upon 
compulsion.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  voyage 
was  long,  and  that  they  had  first  to  pass  through  the  western 
Mediterranean  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  where  the 
Carthaginians  had  regained  their  power  and  obtained  the 
command  of  the  sea.  The  overland  route  was  easier  and 
safer;  it  ran  through  the  country  of  tribes  which  in  those 
distant  times  may  have  been  comparatively  peaceful.  The 
trade  communication  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic 
countries  seems,  as  mentioned  above,  to  have  developed 
early,  and  it  may  be  thought  that  the  active  Greek  traders 
would  try  it  in  order  to  reach  a  district  where  so  much  profit 
was  to  be  expected;  but  no  certain  indication  of  this  com- 
munication can  be  produced  from  any  older  author  of  note 
after  Pytheas's  time,  so  far  as  we  know  them,  and  even  so 
late  an  author  as  Ptolemy  has  little  to  tell  us  of  the  regions  east 
of  the  Vistula. 

The  founder  of  scientific  geography,  Eratosthenes  (275- 
circa  194  B.C.),'  librarian  of  the  Museum  of  Alexandria, 
based  what  he  says  of  the  North  chiefly  on  Pytheas.     He  divided 

'  As  to  what  we  know  of  the  work  of  this  important  geographer  see  in 
particular  Berger  [1880]. 

75 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

the  surface  of  the  earth  into  climates  (zones)  and  constructed 
the  first  map  of  the  world,  whereon  an  attempt  was  made  to 
fix  the  position  of  the  various  places  by  lines  of  latitude  and 
meridians.  He  started  with  seven  known  points,  along  the 
old  meridian  of  Rhodes.  They  were:  Thule,  the  Borysthenes, 
the  Hellespont,  Rhodes,  Alexandria,  Syene,  and  Meroe. 
Through  these  points  he  laid  down  lines  of  latitude  (see  the 
map).  He  also  made  an  attempt  to  calculate  the  circumference 
of  the  globe  by  measurement,  and  found  it  250,000  stadia 
(  =  25,000  geographical  miles),  which  is  34,000  stadia  (  =  3400 
geographical  miles)  too  much.  He  placed  the  island  of  Thule 
under  the  Arctic  Circle,'  far  out  in  the  sea  to  the  north 
of  Brettanice.  This  was  to  him  the  uttermost  land  and  the 
northern  limit  of  the  "  cecumene,"  which  he  calculated  to  be 
38,000  stadia  (=  3800  geographical  miles)  broad,-  which  ac- 
cording to  his  measurement  of  the  circumference  of  the  earth 
is  about  54°  17',  since  each  of  his  degrees  of  latitude  will 
be  about  700  stadia.  His  "  cecumene  "  thus  extended  from  the 
latitude  of  the  Cinnamon  Coast  (Somaliland)  and  Taprobane 
(Ceylon),  8800  stadia  north  of  the  equator,  to  the  Arctic  Circle. 
South  of  it  was  uninhabitable  on  account  of  the  heat,  and  north 
of  it  all  was  frozen. 

Eratosthenes  was  especially  an  advocate  of  the  island-form 
of  the  "  cecumene,"  and  thought  that  it  was  entirely  surrounded 
by  the  ocean,  which  had  been  encountered  in  every  quarter 
where  the  utmost  limits  of  the  world  had  been  reached.  By 
a  perversion  of  the  journey  of  Patrocles  to  a  voyage  round 
India  and  the  east  coast  of  the  continent  into  the  Caspian  Sea, 
he  again  represented  the  latter  as  an  open  bay  of  the  northern 
ocean,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Herodotus,  and  also  Aristotle, 
had  asserted  that  it  was  closed.  The  view  that  the  Caspian 
Sea  was  a  bay  remained  current  until  the  time  of  Ptolemy. 
Eratosthenes  also  held  that  the  occurrence  of  tides  on  all  the 

1  According  to  Eratosthenes'  accurate  calculation  the  Arctic  Circle  lay  in. 
66°  9'  N.  lat. 

=  Cf.  Strabo,  L  63,  iL  114.    More  accurately  it  should  be  37,400  stadia. 

76 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

outer  coasts  was  a  proof  of  the  continuity  of  the  ocean.  He 
said  that  "  if  the  great  extent  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  did  not 
"  make  it  impossible,  we  should  be  able  to  make  the  voyage 
"  from  Iberia  to  India  along  the  same  latitude."  This  was  1700 
years  before  Columbus. 

With  the  scientific  investigator's  lack  of  respect  for  authori- 
ties, he  had  the  audacity  to  doubt  Homer's  geographical  knowl- 


Reconstruction  of  Eratosthenes'  map  of  the  world  [K.  Miller,  1898] 

edge,  and  gave  offence  to  many  by  saying  that  people  would 
never  discover  where  the  islands  of  .ffiolus,  Circe  and  Calypso, 
described  in  the  Odyssey,  really  were,  until  they  had  found  the 
tailor  who  had  made  the  bag  of  the  winds  for  ^olus. 

Hipparchus  (circa  190-125  B.  C.)  also  relies  upon  Pytheas, 
and  has  nothing  new  to  tell  us  of  the  northern  regions.  Against 
Eratosthenes's  proof  of  the  continuity  of  the  ocean,  to  which 
allusion  has  just  been  made,  he  objected  that  the  tides  are 
by  no  means  uniform  on  all  coasts,  and  in  support  of  this  as- 
sertion he  referred  to  the  Babylonian  Seleucus.' 

1  Cf.  Strabo,  i.  5-6.    Seleucus  of  Selucia  on  the  Tigris  lived  in  the  middle 
of  the  2nd  century  B.C.,  and  was  one   of  the  few  who    (like  Aristarchus  of 

17 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


But  it  is  not  clear  whether  Hipparchus  was  an  opponent  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  island-form  of  the  "  cecumene,"  as  has  been 
generally  supposed ;  probably  he  merely  wished  to  point  out  that 
the  evidence  adduced  by  Eratosthenes  was  insufficient.  Hippar- 
chus calculated  a  continuous  table  of  latitude,  or  climate- 
table,  for  the  various  known  localities,  as  far  north  as  Thule. 
He  introduced  the  division  into  degrees.  It  is  also  probable 
that  he  was  the  first  to  use  a  kind  of  map-projection  with  the 

aid  of  converging  meri- 
dians, which  he  drew  in 
straight  lines;  but  as  he 
was  more  an  astronomer 
than  a  geographer  it  is 
unlikely  that  he  con- 
structed any  complete  map 
of  the  world. 

Polybius  (circa  204- 
127  B.C.),  as  we  have 
seen,  pronounced  against 
the  trustworthiness  of 
Pytheas,  and  declared 
that  all  the  country 
north  of  Narbo,  the  Alps 
and  the  Tanais  was 
unknown.  Like  Herodotus,  he  left  the  question  open  whether 
there  was  a  continuous  ocean  on  the  north  side;  but  he  ap- 
pears to  have  inclined  to  the  old  notion  of  the  "  cecumene  "  as 
circular. 

The  Stoic  and  grammarian  Crates  of  Mallus  (about  150 
B.C.),  who  was  not  a  geographer,  constructed  the  first  ter- 
restrial globe,  in  which  he  made  the  Atlantic  Ocean  extend  like 
a  belt  round  the  world  through  both  the  poles,  and  with  the 
Stoic's  worship  of  Homer  he  thought  he  could  follow  in  this 
ocean  Odysseus's  voyage  to  the  regions  of  the  Laestrygons'  long 

Samos,  c.  260  B.C.)  held  the  doctrine  of  the  earth's  rotation  and  movement 
round  the  sun. 

78 


Terrestrial  globe,  according  to  Crates  of 
Mallus  [K.  Kretschmer] 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

day  and  the  Cimmerians'  polar  night.  Since  the  school  of  the 
Stoics  considered  it  necessary  that  there  should  be  ocean  in 
the  torrid  zone,  so  that  the  sun  might  easily  keep  up  its  warmth 
by  the  aid  of  vapors  from  the  sea — for  warmth  was  sup- 
ported by  moisture — Crates  placed  a  belt  of  ocean  round  the 
earth  between  the  tropics,  which  formed  the  limits  of  the  sun's 
path.  These  two  belts  of  water  left  four  masses  of  land  of  which 
only  one  was  known  to  men. 

The  physical  geographer  Posidonius  of  Apamea  in  Syria 
(135-51  B.C.),  who  lived  for  a  long  time  at  Rhodes,  took  the 
Rhipaean  Mountains  for  the  Alps,  and  speaks  of  the  Hyper- 
boreans to  the  north  of  them.  He  thought  that  the  Ocean 
surrounded  the  "  oecumene  "  continuously: 

for  its  waves  were  not  confined  by  any  fetters  of  land,  but  it  stretched  to 
infinity  and  nothing  made  its  waters  turbid. 

A  ship  sailing  with  an  east  wind  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules 
must  reach  India  after  traversing  70,000  stadia,  which  he 
thought  was  the  half-circumference  of  the  earth  along  the 
latitude  of  Rhodes.  The  greatest  circumference  he  calculated 
at  180,000  stadia.  These  erroneous  calculations  were  adopted 
by  Ptolemy,  and  were  afterwards  of  great  significance  to  Co- 
lumbus. 

He  made  a  journey  as  far  as  Gadir  in  order  to  see  the  outer 
Ocean  for  himself,  to  measure  the  tides  and  to  examine  the 
correctness  of  the  generally  accepted  idea  that  the  sun,  on  its 
setting  in  the  western  ocean,  gave  out  a  hissing  sound  like  a 
red-hot  body  being  dipped  into  water.  He  rightly  connected 
the  tides  with  the  moon,  finding  that  their  monthly  period 
corresponded  with  the  full  moon;  whereas  others  had  thought, 
for  instance,  that  they  were  due  to  changes  in  the  rivers  of 
Gaul. 

Caesar's  Gallic  War  and  his  invasion  of  Britain  (55-45 
B.C.)  contributed  fresh  information  about  these  portions  of  West- 
ern Europe ;  but  it  cannot  be  seen  that  they  gave  anything  new 
about  the  North.  Caesar  describes  Britain  as  a  triangle.  This 
is  undoubtedly  the  same  idea  that  we  find  in  his  contemporary 

79 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 
Diodorus  Siculus,  and  is  derived  from  Pytheas.     Caesar  merely 
gives  different  proportions  between  the  sides  from  those  of  Di- 
odorus.    He  puts  Hibemia  to  the  west  of  Britain,  not  to  the 
north  Uke  Strabo,  and  makes  its  size  about  two-thirds  of  the 
latter,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  strait  of  about  the  same 
breadth   as  that  between  Gaul   and  Britain.     Between   Ireland 
(Hibemia)  and  Britain  is  an  island,  "Mona"   (Anglesey),  and 
scattered  about  it  many  other  islands.     In  some  of  them  there 
was  said  to  be  a  month  of  unbroken  night  at  the  winter  solstice; 
but  of  this  Caesar  was  unable  to   obtain  certain  information. 
This  must  be  an  echo  of  the  tales  about  Thule,  which  he  had 
got  from  older  Greek  or  Roman  authors. 

Caesar  is  a  good  example  of  the  Romans'  views  of  and  sense 
for  geography.     In  spite  of  this  miUtary  nation  having  extended 
their  empire  to  the  bounds  of  the  unknown  in  every  direction, 
they  never  produced  a  scientfic  geographer,  nor  did  they  send 
out  anything  that  we  should  call  a  voyage  of  exploration,  as 
the   Phoenicians,   Carthaginians,   and   Greeks  had   done.     They 
were  above  all  a  practical  people,  with  more  sense  for  organi- 
zation  than   for   research    and    science,    and    in    addition   they 
lacked    commercial    interests    as    compared    with    those    other 
peoples.     But  during  their  long  campaigns  under  the  Empire, 
and  by  their  extensive  communications  with  the  most  distant 
re-ions,  they  brought  together  an  abundance  of  geographical 
information    hitherto    unknown    to    the    classical    world.     It    is 
natural  that  it  should  have  been  a  Greek  who,  m  one  of  the 
most  important  geographical  works  that  has  come  down  to  us 
from  ancient  times,  endeavored  to  collect  a  part  of  this  mforma- 
tion,    together    with    the    knowledge    already    acquired   by   the 
Greeks,  into  a  systematic  statement. 

This  man  was  the  famous  geographer  Strabo,  a  native 
of  Asia  Minor  (about  63  B.C.-25  A.D.).  But  unfortunately 
this  critic  has  nothing  to  tell  us  about  the  North,  and  m  his 
anxiety  to  avoid  exaggeration  he  has,  like  Polybius,  been  at 
great  pains  to  discredit  Pytheas,  of  whose  statements  he  wil 
take  no  account;  nor  has  he  made  use  of  the  knowledge  of 
80 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

the  northernmost  regions  which  we  see,  from  PUny  among  oth- 
ers, that  other  Greek  authors  possessed.  He  has  not  even  made 
use  of  the  geographical  knowledge  which  was  gained  in  his 
own  time  during  the  Roman  campaign  in  Northern  Germania 
under  Augustus,  if  indeed  he  knew  of  it.  To  him  the  Ister 
(Danube),  the  mountainous  districts  of  the  Hercynian  Forest, 
and  the  country  as  far  as  the  Tyregetae  formed,  roughly,  the 
northern  boundary  of  the  known  world.  He  thinks  it  is  only 
ignorance  of  the  more  distant  regions  that  has  made  people  be- 
lieve the  fables  "  of  the  Rhipasan  Mountains  and  the  Hyperbo- 
reans, as  well  as  all  that  Pytheas  of  Massalia  has  invented  about 
the  coast  of  the  ocean,  making  use  of  his  astronomical  and 
mathematical  knowledge  as  a  cloak."  "  leme  "  (Ireland)  was 
placed  by  Strabo  out  in  the  ocean  to  the  north  of  Britain.  He 
took  it  for  the  most  northern  land,  and  thought  that  its  latitude 
(which  would  have  to  be  about  54°  N.)  formed  the  boundary  of 
the  "  oecumene." 

"For,"  he  says  [ii.  115],  "living  writers  tell  us  of  nothing  beyond  lerne, 
which  lies  near  to  Britain  on  the  north,  and  is  inhabited  by  savages  who  live 
miserably  on  account  of  the  cold."  He  says  further  [iv.  201]  of  this  island  at 
the  end  of  the  world:  "of  this  we  have  nothing  certain  to  relate,  except  that 
its  inhabitants  are  even  more  savage  than  the  Britons,  as  they  are  both  canni- 
bals and  omnivorous  [or  grass-eaters?],  and  consider  it  commendable  to  de- 
vour their  deceased  parents.i  as  well  as  openly  to  have  commerce  not  only 
with  other  women,  but  also  with  their  own  mothers  and  sisters.  But  this  we 
relate  perhaps  without  sufficient  authority;  although  cannibalism  at  least  is 
said  to  be  a  Scythian  custom,  and  the  Celts,  the  Iberians,  and  other  peoples 
are  reported  to  have  practised  it  under  the  stress  of  a  siege." 

'■  Herodotus  [iv.  26]  says  of  the  Issedonians  in  Scythia  that  "  when  a  man's 
father  dies,  all  the  relatives  bring  cattle;  and  when  they  have  slain  them  as  a 
sacrifice  and  cut  the  flesh  in  pieces,  they  also  cut  up  their  host's  deceased 
father;  then  they  mix  all  the  flesh  together  and  serve  it  for  the  meal;  but  the 
head  they  decorate  with  gold,  after  having  taken  the  hair  off  and  washed  it; 
and  afterwards  they  treat  it  as  an  idol  and  bring  offerings  to  it  every  year." 
Such  a  cannibal  custom,  if  it  really  existed,  may  have  been  connected  with  re- 
ligious ideas.  But  Herodotus  [i.  216]  attributes  to  the  Massagetae  the  follow- 
ing still  more  horrible  custom:  "when  a  man  grows  very  old,  all  his  relatives 
assemble  and  slay  him,  and  together  with  him  several  kinds  of  cattle;  then 
they  boil  the  flesh  and  hold  a  banquet.  This  is  accounted  among  them  the 
happiest  end." 

81 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Strabo  evidently  attributes  to  a  cold  climate  a  remarkable 
capacity  for  brutalizing  people,  and  he  considers  that  the  re- 
ports of  the  still  more  distant  Thule  must  be  even  more  uncer- 
tain. 

The  breadth  of  the  "  CECumene,"  from  north  to  south,  he  made 
only  30,000  stadia,  and  thought  that  Eratosthenes,  deceived  by 
the  fables  of  Pytheas,  had  put  the  limit  8000  stadia  (=11°  26') 
too  far  north.  Of  the  countries  beyond  the  Albis  (Elbe),  he 
says,  nothing  is  known.  Nevertheless  he  mentions  the  Cimbri 
as  dwelling  on  a  peninsula  by  the  northern  ocean;  but  he  has 
no  very  clear  idea  of  where  this  peninsula  is. 

No  one  can  believe,  he  thinks  [vii.  292],  that  the  reason  for  their  wandering 
and  piratical  life  was  that  they  were  driven  out  of  their  peninsula  [which  must 
be  Jutland]  by  a  great  inundation,  for  they  still  have  the  same  country  as  be- 
fore, and  it  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  they  left  it  in  anger  at  a  natural  and 
constant  phenomenon,  which  occurs  twice  daily  [Le.,  the  tides],  etc.  But  it 
appears  from  Strabo's  statements  that  there  had  been  many  reports  of  a  great 
storm  flood  in  Denmark,  which  the  Cimbri  escaped  from  with  difficulty. 

Of  the  customs  of  these  people  Strabo  relates  among  other  things  that 
they  were  accompanied  on  their  expeditions  by  priestesses  with  gray  hair, 
white  clothes  and  bare  feet.  "  They  went  with  drawn  swords  to  meet  the 
captives  in  the  camp,  crowned  them  with  garlands  and  led  them  to  a  sacrificial 
vessel  of  metal,  holding  twenty  amphorae  [Roman  cubic  feet].  Here  they  had 
a  ladder,  upon  which  one  of  them  mounted  and,  bent  over  the  vessel,  they  cut 
the  throat  of  the  prisoner,  who  was  held  up.  They  made  auguries  from  the 
blood  running  into  the  vessel;  while  others  opened  the  corpse  and  inspected 
the  entrails,  prophesying  victory  for  their  army.  And  in  battle  they  beat  skins 
stretched  upon  the  wicker-work  of  their  chariots,  making  a  hideous  noise." 
This  is  one  of  the  first  descriptions  of  the  customs  of  the  warrior-hordes  rov- 
ing about  Europe,  who  came  in  contact  with  the  classical  world  from  the  un- 
known north,  and  who  in  later  centuries  were  to  come  more  frequently.  But 
the  description  is  certainly  influenced  by  Greek  ideas. 

Strabo  thought  that  besides  the  world  known  to  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  other  continents  or  worlds,  where  other  races  of 
men  dwelt,  might  be  discovered. 

In  a  work  called  "  Suasorias  "  (circa  37  A.D.)  of  the  Spanish- 
bom  rhetorician  Seneca  there  are  preserved  fragments  of  a 
poem,  written  by  Albinovanus  Pedo  (in  the  time  of  Augustus), 
82 


ANTIQUITY,   AFTER   PYTHEAS 

which  describes  an  expedition  of  Germanicus  in  the  North  Sea. 
It  has  been  thought  that  this  may  have  been  the  younger  Ger- 
manicus's  unfortunate  campaign  in  i6  A.D.,  when  he  sailed  out 
from  the  Ems  with  a  fieet  of  a  thousand  ships.  This  supposi- 
tion is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  Tacitus  mentions  a  cavalry 
leader,  Albinovanus  Pedo,  under  the  same  commander  in  15 
A.D.,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  he  was  the  poet.'  But  as  this 
unhappy  fleet  did  not  get  far  from  the  coast,  and  the  poem  de- 
scribes a  voyage  into  unknown  regions,  others  have  thought 
that  it  might  be  an  expedition  undertaken  by  Drusus,  the  el- 
der Germanicus,  in  some  year  between  12  and  9  B.C.^  How 
this  may  be  is  of  less  importance  to  us,  as  the  poem  does  not 
mention  any  fresh  discoveries.  It  is  interesting  because  it  gives 
us  a  picture  of  the  ideas  current  at  that  time  about  the  north- 
ern limits  of  the  world.  Where  the  fragments  commence,  the 
travelers  have  long  ago  left  daylight  and  the  sun  behind  them, 
and,  having  passed  beyond  the  limits  of  the  known  world,  plunge 
boldly  into  the  forbidden  darkness  towards  the  end  of  the  west- 
em  world.  There  they  believe  that  the  sea,  which  beneath 
its  sluggish  ("  pigris  ")  waves  is  full  of  hideous  monsters,  sav- 
age whales  ("pistris"),  and  sea-hounds  ("  ^quoreosque  canes" 
=  seals?),  rises  and  takes  hold  of  the  ship — the  noise  itself  in- 
creases the  horror — and  now  they  think  the  ships  will  stick  in 
the  mud,  and  the  fleet  will  remain  there,  deserted  by  the  winds  ^ 
of  the  ocean — now  that  they  themselves  will  be  left  there  helpless 

1  Cf.  M.  Schanz:  "  Geschichte  der  Romischen  Literatur,"  ii.,  p.  241,  1899;  in 
I.  Miiller:  "  Handb.  Klass.  Altert.-Wiss.,"  bd.  viii.  See  also  Miillenhoff,  iv., 
1900,  p.  47. 

•Ci.  Detlefsen,  1897,  p.  197;  1904,  p.  45.  By  his  voyage  in  12  B.C.  with 
his  fleet  along  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  and 
the  Zuyder  Zee  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ems,  Drusus  won  fame  as  the  first  gen- 
eral who  had  sailed  in  the  North  Sea.  The  Romans,  of  course,  were  not  great 
seafarers. 

3  The  MSS.  have  "  flamine  "  (winds) ;  but  it  has  been  thought  that  *'  flum- 
ine  "  (streams)  gives  a  better  meaning  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1897,  p.  198].  "Flamine" 
(winds)  might,  however,  suit  the  ideas  of  the  earth's  limits  (cf.  the  de- 
scription of  Himilco's  voyage  in  Avienus,  see  above  p.  40). 

83 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

and  be  torn  to  pieces  by  the  monsters  of  the  deep.  And  the 
man  who  stands  high  in  the  prow  strives  with  his  eyes  to  break 
through  the  impenetrable  air,  but  can  see  nothing,  and  reUeves 
his  oppression  in  the  following  words :  "  Whither  are  we  being 
carried?  The  day  itself  flees  from  us,  and  uttermost  nature 
closes  in  the  deserted  world  with  continual  darkness.  Or  are  we 
sailing  towards  people  on  the  other  side,  who  dwell  under  another 
heaven,  and  towards  another  unknown  world?  ^  The  gods  call 
us  back  and  forbid  the  eyes  of  mortals  to  see  the  boundary  of 
things.  Why  do  we  violate  strange  seas  and  sacred  waters  with 
our  oars,  disturbing  the  peaceful  habitations  of  the  gods?  " 

This  last  conception  is  clearly  derived  from  the  "  Isles  of 
the  Blest"  of  the  Greeks  (originally  of  the  Phoenicians),  which 
were  situated  in  the  deep  currents  of  Oceanus  and  are  already 
referred  to  in  Hesiod. 

Seneca,  on  the  other  hand,  says  of  the  outer  limits  of  the 
world :  "  Thus  is  nature,  beyond  all  things  is  the  ocean,  beyond 
the  ocean  nothing "  ("  ita  est  rerum  natura,  post  omnia  oce- 
anus, post  oceanum  nihil"),  and  Pliny  speaks  of  the  empty 
space  ("  inane  ")  that  puts  an  end  to  the  voyage  beyond  the 
ocean. 

1  The  text  has  here  "  alium  liberis  (or  "  libris  ")  intactum  quasrimus  orbem," 
which  might  be:  "towards  another  world  untouched  by  books,"  that  is,  of 
which  no  book  has  said  anything.  As  such  an  expression  is  quite  at  variance 
with  the  generally  pompous  style  of  the  poem,  Detlefsen  [1897,  p.  200,  1904,  j\ 
47]  has  thought  that  "  libris  "  here  was  "  libra,"  =  "  libella,"  that  is,  the  level 
used  by  builders,  with  two  legs  and  a  plumb  hanging  in  the  middle,  and  the 
meaning  would  then  be  that  this  part  of  the  earth's  circumference  was  not 
touched  by  the  plumb  of  the  level,  but  that  the  latter  was  obliquely  inclined 
over  the  abyss  at  the  end  of  the  world.  This  explanation  seems  to  make 
Pedo's  poem  even  more  artificial  than  it  is,  and  Detlefsen  appears  to  think 
[1897,  p.  200]  that  the  builder's  level  is  used  to  find  perpendicular  lines,  instead 
of  horizontal.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  such  an  idea  of  a  gulf  or  abyss  at 
the  end  of  the  world  was  current  at  that  time,  as  it  was  much  later  (cf.  Adam 
of  Bremen,  and  also  the  Ginnungagap  of  the  Norsemen),  even  if  it  does  not 
appear  in  this  poem.  It  might  be  thought  that  "  libris  "  was  here  used  in  the 
sense  of  sounding-lead,  so  that  the  meaning  would  be,  "  untouched  by  sound- 
ings," in  other  words,  a  sea  where  no  soundings  had  been  made:  but  this 
meaning  of  "  libris "  would  be  unusual,  and  besides  one  would  then  expect 
some  word  for  sea,  and  not  "  orbem." 

84 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER   PYTHEAS 

In  the  year  5  A.D.  the  emperor  Augustus,  in  connection 
with  Tiberius's  expedition  to  the  Elbe,  sent  a  Roman  fleet 
from  the  Rhine  along  the  coast  of  Germania;  it  sailed  north- 
ward by  the  land  of  the  Cimbri  (Jutland),  past  its  northern 
extremity  (the  Skaw),  probably  into  the  Cattegat,  and  perhaps 
to  the  Danish  islands.  Augustus  himself,  in  the  Ancyra  in- 
scription, tells  us  of  the  voyage  of  this  fleet,  and  says  that 
it  came  "  even  to  the  people  of  the  Cimbri,  whither  before 
that  time  no  Roman  had  penetrated  either  by  land  or  sea,* 
and  the  Cimbri  and  the  Charydes  (Harudes,  Horder),  and  the 
Semnones,  and  other  Germanic  peoples  in  those  districts 
sent  ambassadors  to  ask  for  my  friendship  and  that  of  the  Roman 
people."  2  Velleius  [ii.  106]  also  gives  an  account  of  this 
voyage,  and  Pliny  [ii.  167]  gives  the  following  description  of 
it :  "  The  Northern  Ocean  has  also  been  in  great  part  traversed ; 
by  the  orders  of  the  divine  Augustus  a  fleet  sailed  round  Ger- 
mania to  the  Cimbrian  Cape,  and  saw  therefrom  a  sea  that 
was  immeasurable,  or  heard  that  it  was  so,  and  came  to  the 
Scythian  region  and  to  places  that  were  stiff  [with  cold]  from 
too  much  moisture.  It  is  therefore  very  improbable  that  the 
seas  can  run  short  where  there  is  such  superfluity  of  moisture." 
Miillenhoff  thinks  [iv.  1900,  p.  45]  that  on  this  voyage  they 
saw  the  Norwegian  mountains,  the  immense  "  Mons  Saevo " 
(see  later  under  Pliny)  rising  out  of  the  sea.  This  is  not  impos- 
sible, but  we  read  nothing  about  it;  nor  indeed  is  it  very 
probable.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  likely  that  the  voyage  re- 
sulted in  fresh  knowledge  about  the  North,  and  that  at  any 
rate  some  of  the  statements  in  Mela  and  Pliny  may  be  derived 
from  this  source. 

The  oldest  known  Latin  geography,  "  de  Chorographia," 
v/as  written  about  43  A.D,  by  an  otherwise  unknown  Pom- 

1  I  cannot,  with  Detlefsen  [1904,  p.  48],  find  anything  in  this  expression  to 
show  that  Augustus  gives  the  Greeks  the  credit  for  having  penetrated  beyond 
the  Cimbrian  Cape  earlier. 

=  Cf.  Miillenhoff,  ii.,  1887,  p.  285,  and  iv.,  1900,  p.  45;  Holz,  1894,  p.  23; 
Detlefsen,  1904,  p.  47. 

85 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


The  world  according  to  Mela 


ponius  Mela,  of  Tingentera,  in  Spain.  With  the  strange  men- 
tal poverty  of  Roman  literature,  Mela  bases  his  work  chiefly 
on   older   Greek   sources    (e.g.,    Herodotus   and    Eratosthenes) 

which  are  several  cen- 
turies before  his  time; 
but  in  addition  he  gives 
much  information  not 
found  elsewhere.  Whether 
this  is  also  for  the  most 
part  taken  from  older 
writers,  it  is  impossible 
to  say,  as  he  nowhere 
gives  his  authorities.  His 
descriptions,  especially 
those  of  more  distant 
regions,  are  sometimes 
made  obscure  and  con- 
tradictory by  Ijis  evi- 
dently having  drawn  upon 
different  sources  without  combining  them  into  a  whole. 

He  begins  with  these  words  of  wisdom :  "  All  this,  what- 
ever it  is,  to  which  we  give  the  name  of  universe  and  heaven, 
is  one  and  includes  itself  and  everything  in  a  circle  ('  ambitu'). 
In  the  middle  of  the  universe  floats  the  earth,  which  is  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  sea,  and  is  divided  by  it  from  west  to 
east  [that  is,  by  the  equatorial  sea,  as  in  Crates  of  Mallus]  into 
two  parts,  which  are  called  hemispheres."  Whether  one  is 
to  conclude  from  this  that  the  earth  in  his  opinion  was  a  sphere 
or  a  round  disc,  he  seems  to  leave  the  reader  to  determine. 
He  divides  the  earth  into  the  five  zones  of  Parmenides.  The 
two  temperate  or  habitable  zones  seem,  according  to  Mela, 
to  coincide  with  the  two  masses  of  land,  while  the  uninhabitable 
ones,  the  torrid  and  the  two  frigid  zones,  are  continuous  sea. 
On  the  southern  continent  dwell  the  Antichthons,  who  are  un- 
known, on  account  of  the  heat  of  the  intervening  region.  On  the 
northern  one  we  dwell,  and  this  is  what  he  proposes  to  describe. 
86 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

Europe  is  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Atlantic,  and  on  the 
north  by  the  British  Ocean.  Asia  has  on  the  north  the  Scythian 
Ocean. 

[iii.  c.  5.]  In  proof  of  the  continuity  of  these  oceans  he  appeals  not  only 
to  the  physicists  and  Homer,  but  also  to  Cornelius  Nepos,  "who  is  more 
modern  and  trustworthy,"  and  who  confirms  it  and  "  cites  Quintus  Metellus 
Celer  as  witness  thereto,  and  says  that  he  has  narrated  the  following:  When 
he  was  governing  Gaul  as  proconsul  the  king  of  the  Boti '  gave  him  some  In- 
dians," who  "  by  stress  of  storm  had  been  carried  away  from  Indian  waters, 
and  after  having  traversed  all  the  space  between,  had  finally  reached  the 
shores  of  Germania." 

Mela  has  many  ancient  fables  to  tell  of  the  peoples  in  the 
northern  districts  of  Germania,  Sarmatia  and  Scythia,  which 
last  was  his  name  for  what  is  now  Russia  and  for  the  north 
of  Asia.  It  appears  that  he  too  was  of  the  opinion  that  a  cold 
climate  develops  savagery  and  cruelty. 

He  says  of  Germania  [iii.  c.  3] :  "  The  inhabitants  are  immense  in  soul  and 
body;  and  besides  their  natural  savagery  they  exercise  both,  their  souls  in  war- 
fare, their  bodies  by  accustoming  them  to  constant  hardship,  especially  cold." 
"Might  is  right  to  such  an  extent  that  they  are  not  even  ashamed  of  robbery; 
only  to  their  guests  are  they  kind,  and  merciful  towards  suppliants."  The 
people  of  Sarmatia  were  nomads,  [iii.  c.  4.]  "  They  are  alike  warlike,  free, 
unconstrained,  and  so  savage  and  cruel  that  the  women  go  to  war  together 
with  the  men.  In  order  that  they  may  be  fitted  thereto  the  right  breast  is 
burned  off  immediately  after  birth,  whereby  the  hand  which  is  drawn  out  [in 
drawing  a  bow]  becomes  adapted  for  shooting  [by  the  breast  not  coming  in 
the  way  or  because  the  arm  grew  stronger]   and  the  breast  becomes  manly.^ 

'  K.  Miller  [vi.,  1898,  p.  105]  proposes  to  read  "  Gotorum  rex  "  (the  king  of 
the  Goths)  instead  of  the  "  Botorum  rex"  of  the  MSS.  The  last  name  is 
otherwise  unknown,  and  has  also  been  read  "  Boiorum."  Pliny,  who  has  the 
same  story  almost  word  for  word  [Nat.  Hist.,  ii.  c.  67,  170]  says  that  the  same 
Celer  had  the  Indians  from  the  king  of  the  Suevi. 

-  This  was  a  common  idea  among  the  Greeks  about  the  Amazons  [cf.  Hip- 
pocrates, flepi  depwv  etc.,  c.  17;  Strabo,  xi.  504;  Diodorus,  ii.  45];  it  has  even 
been  sought  to  derive  the  name  itself  from  this,  since  "  mazos "  (^/jaf^o';) 
means  breast,  and  "  a "  (a)  is  the  negative  particle,  this  would  therefore  be 
"  without  breasts."  But  other  explanations  of  the  origin  of  the  name  have 
been  given,  e.g.,  that  they  were  not  suckled  at  the  breast.  It  is  possible  that 
the  name  meant  something  quite  different,  but  that  owing  to  its  resemblance 
to  the  Greek  word  for  breast  it  gave  rise  to  the  legend,  and  not  vice-versa.  In 
Latin  the  Amazons  were  sometimes  called  "  Unimammia  "  (one-breasted),  but 

87 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

To  draw  the  bow,  to  ride  and  to  hunt  are  employments  for  the  young 
girls;  when  grown  up  it  is  their  duty  to  fight  the  foe,  so  that  it  is  held 
to  be  a  shame  not  to  have  killed  some  one,  and  the  punishment  is  that  they 
are  not  allowed  to  marry."  ^  It  would  appear  that  the  northern  countries,  ac- 
cording to  the  view  of  Mela,  had  a  tendency  to  "  emancipate "  women,  even 
though  he  always  regards  it  as  a  severe  punishment  for  them  to  have  to  live 
as  virgins.-  Among  the  Xamati  in  his  western  Asia,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Tanais  [i.  c.  ig],  "  the  women  engage  in  the  same  occupations  as  the  men." 
"  The  men  fight  on  foot  and  with  arrows,  the  women  on  horseback,  not  using 
swords,  but  catching  men  in  snares  and  killing  them  by  dragging  them  along." 
Those  who  have  not  killed  an  enemy  must  live  unmarried.  Amongst  other 
peoples  the  women  do  not  confine  themselves  to  this  snaring  of  men;  the 
Maeotides  who  dwell  in  the  country  of  the  Amazons  are  governed  by  women; 
and  farthest  north  live  the  Amazons;  but  he  does  not  tell  us  whether  the  latter 
could  dispense  with  men  altogether,  and  reproduce  themselves  like  the  women 
he  tells  us  of  on  an  island  off  the  coast  of  Africa,  who  were  hairy  all  over  the 
body.  "  This  is  related  by  Hanno,  and  it  seems  worthy  of  credit,  because 
he  brought  back  the  skin  of  some  he  had  killed."  [iii.  c.  g.] 

But  this  increasing  savagery  towards  the  north  had  a  limit, 
as  in  the  early  Greek  idea,  after  which  things  became  better 
again;  for  beyond  the  country  of  the  Amazons  [i.  c.  19]  and 
other  wild  races,  like  the  Thyssagetae  and  Turcas  who  inhabited 
immense  forests  and  lived  by  hunting,^  there  extended,  appar- 
ently towards  the  north-east  (?),  a  "great  desert  and  rugged 
tract,  full  of  mountains,  as  far  as  the  Arimphsans,  who  had 
very  just  customs  and  were  looked  upon  as  holy."  *  "  Beyond 
them  rise  the  Rhipaean  Mountains  and  behind  them  lies  the 
region  that  borders  on  the  Ocean."  In  addition,  the  happy 
"  Hyperboreans "  dwelt  in  the  North.  In  his  description  of 
Scythia  he  says  of  them  [iii.  c.  5]  :     "  Then  [i.e.,  after  Sarmatia] 

in  Greek  art  they  were  always  represented  with  well-developed  breasts.  Hip- 
pocrates says  that  the  right  breasts  of  the  Scythian  women  were  burned  off  by 
the  mother  with  a  special  bronze  instrument,  while  the  girls  were  quite  small, 
because  "  then  the  breast  ceased  to  grow,  and  all  force  and  development  was 
transmitted  to  the  right  shoulder  and  the  arm." 

^  Cf.  Herodotus,  iv.  cc.  116,  117. 

-  Cf.  Herodotus,  iv.  cc.  116,  117. 

^  Cf.  Herodotus,  iv.  c.  22. 

^  These  are  Herodotus'  "Argippaei"  or  "  Argimpaei  "  [iv.  c.  23]  who  lived 
in  tents  of  felt  in  winter.  They  were  bald,  whereas  those  of  Mela  go  bare- 
headed. 

88 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

come  the  neighboring  parts  of  Asia  [or  the  parts  bordering 
on  Asia?].  Except  where  continual  winter  and  unbearable 
cold  reigns,  the  Scythian  people  dwell  there,  almost  all  known 
by  the  name  of  '  Belcae '  (?).  On  the  shore  of  Asia  come  first 
the   Hyperboreans,  beyond  the  north  wind  and  the   Rhip^an 


Europe  according  to   the  description  of  Mela 

Mountains  under  the  very  pivot  of  the  stars  "  [i.e.,  the  pole]. 
In  their  country  the  sun  rose  at  the  vernal  equinox  and  set  at 
the  autumnal  equinox,  so  that  they  had  six  months  day  and 
six  months  night.  "  This  narrow  [or  holy?]  sunny  land  is  in 
itself  fertile."  He  goes  on  to  give  a  description  of  the  happy 
life  of  the  Hyperboreans,  taken  from  Greek  sources. 

On  north-western  Europe  Mela  has  much  information 
which  is  not  met  with  in  earlier  authors.  The  tin-islands,  the 
Cassiterides,  lay  off  the  north-west  of  Spain,  where  the  "  Cel- 

89 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

tici "  lived  [iii.  c.  6].  "Beyond  ('super')  Britain  is  Juvema 
[Ireland],  nearly  as  large,  with  a  climate  unfavorable  to  the 
ripening  of  corn,  but  with  such  excellent  pastures  that  if  the 
cattle  are  allowed  to  graze  for  more  than  a  small  part  of  the 
day,  they  burst  in  pieces.  The  inhabitants  are  rude  and  more 
ignorant  than  other  peoples  of  all  kinds  of  virtue.  Religion  is 
altogether  unknown  to  them." 

"  The  Orcades  are  thirty  in  number,  divided  from  each 
other  by  narrow  straits;  the  Hasmodas  seven,  drawn  towards 
Germany"  ("  septem  Hasmodae  contra  Germaniam  vectas"). 
This  is  the  first  time,  so  far  as  is  known,  that  these  two  groups 
of  islands  are  mentioned  in  literature.  Diodorus,  it  is  true, 
had  already  spoken  of  "  Orkan  "  or  "  Orkas,"  but  not  as  a  group 
of  islands.  As  this  name  is  probably  derived  from  Pytheas,  it 
is  likely  that  the  other,  "  Haemodae,"  is  also  his.  Possibly  the 
groups  were  re-discovered  under  the  emperor  Claudius  (about 
43  A.D.)  or  more  definite  inform.ation  may  have  been  received 
about  them;  but  on  the  other  hand,  Mela  says  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  Britain  that  was  acquired  during  this  campaign  would 
be  brought  back  by  Claudius  himself  in  his  triumph.  It  will 
be  most  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Mela's  thirty  Orcades  are 
the  Orkneys — the  number  is  approximately  correct — and  not 
the  Orkneys  and  Shetlands  together.  The  seven  Haemodae,  on 
the  other  hand,  must  be  the  latter,  and  can  hardly  be  the  Heb- 
rides, as  many  would  believe,  since  Mela  mentions  the  islands 
off  the  west  coast  of  Europe  in  a  definite  order,  and  he  names 
first  "  Juvema,"  then  the  "  Orcades,"  and  next  the  "  Haemodae," 
which  are  "  carried  ('  vectas  ')  towards  Germany "  ^  (cf.  also 
Pliny  later). 

In  his  description  of  Germania  [iii.  c.  3]  Mela  says: 

Beyond  ("  super ")  Albis  is  an  immense  bay,  Codanus,  full  of  many  great 
and  small  islands.  Here  the  sea  which  is  received  in  the  bosom  of  the  shore 
is  nowhere  broad  and  nowhere  like  a  sea,  but  as  the  waters  everywhere  flow 

1  To  understand  [like  K.  Miller,  vi.  1898,  p.  105]  "  vectae  "  as  the  name  of 
an  island   ("  Vectis  "  =  the  Isle  of  Wight)   seems  in  itself  somewhat  improb- 
able, and  is  moreover  excluded  by  Mela's  rhetorical  style,  which  demands  a 
clause  following  Haemodae  to  balance  that  attached  to  Orcades  just  before. 
90 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER   PYTHEAS 

between  and  often  go  over  [i.e.,  over  the  tongues  of  land  or  shallows  which 
connect  the  islands]  it  is  split  up  into  the  appearance  of  rivers,  which  are  un- 
defined and  widely  separated;  where  the  sea  touches  the  shores  [of  the  main- 
land], since  it  is  held  in  by  the  shores  of  the  islands  which  are  not  far  from 
each  other,  and  since  nearly  everywhere  it  is  not  large  [i.e.,  broad],  it  runs  in 
a  narrow  channel  and  like  a  strait  ("fretum"),  and  turning  with  the  shore  it  is 
curved  like  a  long  eyebrow.  In  this  [sea]  dwell  the  Cimbri  and  the  Teutons, 
and  beyond  [the  sea,  or  the  Cimbri  and  Teutons?]  the  extreme  people  of  Ger- 
mania,  namely  the  Hermiones. 

The  meaning  of  this  description,  which  seems  to  be  as  in- 
volved as  the  many  sounds  he  is 
talking  about,  must  probably  be 
that  in  the  immense  bay  of  Co- 
danus  there  are  a  number  of  islands 
with  many  narrow  straits  between 
them,  like  rivers.  Along  the 
shore  of  the  mainland  there  is 
formed,  by  the  almost  continuous 
line  of  islands  lying  outside,  a  long 
curving  strait,  which  is  nearly 
everywhere  of  the  same  narrow- 
ness. In  this  sea,  that  is  to  say, 
on  the  peninsulas  and  islands  in 
this  bay,  dwell  the  Cimbri  and 
Teutons,  and  farther  away  in  Ger- 
mania  the  Hermiones. 

In    his    account    of    the    islands 
along    the    coast    of    Europe,    Mela  i^i^^  ^;th  Hippopod  or  horse- 
says  further   [iii.   c.  6]  :  footed  man  (from  the  Hereford 

map) 
In  the  bay  which  we  have  called  Codanus, 
is  amongst  the  islands  Codanovia,  which  is  still  inhabited  by  the  Teutons,  and 
it  surpasses  the  others  both  in  size  and  in  fertility.  The  part  which  lies  to- 
wards the  Sarmatians  seems  sometimes  to  be  islands  and  sometimes  con- 
nected land,  on  account  of  the  backward  and  forward  flow  of  the  sea,  and  be- 
cause the  interval  which  separates  them  is  now  covered  by  the  waves,  now 
bare.  Upon  these  it  is  asserted  that  the  CEneans  dwell,  who  live  entirely  on  the 
eggs  of  fen-fowls  and  on  oats,  the  Hippopods  with  horses'  feet,  and  the  San- 
alians,  who  have  such  long  ears  that  they  cover  the  whole  body  with  them 
instead  of  clothes,  sir.ce  they  otherwise  go  naked.  For  these  things,  besides 
what  is  told  in  fables,  I  find  also  authorities  whom  I  think  I  may  follow.     To- 

91 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

wards  the  coast  of  the  Belgae  '  lies  Thule,  famous  in  Greek  poems  and  in  our 
own;  there  the  nights  in  any  case  are  short,  since  the  sun,  when  it  has  long 
been  about  to  set,  rises  up;  but  in  the  winter  the  nights  are  dark  as  else- 
where .  .  .  But  at  the  summer  solstice  there  is  no  night  at  all,  because  the 
sun  then  is  already  clearer,  and  not  only  shows  its  reflection,  but  also  the 
greater  part  of  itself. 


Thus  we  see  here,  as  in  so  many  of  the  classical  authors, 
and  later  in  Pliny,  old  legends  and  more  trustworthy  informa- 
tion hopelessly  mixed  together.  The 
legends,  whose  Greek  origin  is  disclosed 
by  the  form  of  the  names,  may  be  old 
skippers'  tales,  or  the  romances  of  mer- 
chants who  went  northward  from  the 
Black  Sea,  but  they  may  also  in  part 
be  derived  from  Pytheas.  A  fable  like 
that  of  the  long-eared  Sanali  (otherwise 
called  Panoti),  originally  came  from 
India  and  is  later  than  his  time.  The 
statement  about  the  CEneas,  or,  doubt- 
less more  correctly,  CEonae  (i.e.,  egg- 
eaters)  who  live  on  eggs  and  oats,  may, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  reached  him 
from  the  north,  where  the  eggs  both  of 
fen-fowls  (plovers'  eggs,  for  example) 
and  of  sea-birds  were  eaten  from  time 
Island  with  long-eared   immemorial.     Caesar    had    heard    or    read 

man    (from    the    Here-        ^  ,  i         t       j  i_-    j   >  j 

.  of   people   who   lived   on  birds    eggs   and 

fish   on  the   islands  at  the   mouth   of  the 

Rhine,  but  he  may  indeed  have  derived  his  knowledge  from 

Greek  sources  [cf.  Miillenhoff,  i.,  1870,  p.  492]. 

What  Mela  says  about  Thule  probably  comes  from  Pytheas, 

as  already  mentioned  (p.  72),  and  it  is  very  possible  that  the 

remarkable    statements    about    the    immense    bay    of    Codanus 


1  These  "  Belgx  "  are,  of  course,  the  same  as  the  "  Belcae  "  already  men- 
tioned by  Mela  as  the  Scythian  people  in  the  northernmost  part  of  Scythia 
(see  above  p.  89).     What  people   is  meant  is  uncertain. 

92 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

are  likewise  derived  from  him,  although  they  may  also  be 
ascribed  to  the  circumnavigation  of  the  Skaw  under  Augustus, 
or  to  other  voyages  in  these  waters  of  which  we  have  no 
knowledge. 

Whether  Codanovia  (which  is  not  found  in  any  other 
known  author)  is  the  same  name  as  the  later  Scadinavia  in 
Pliny,  must  be  regarded  as  uncertain.  It  is  the  first  time  that 
such  an  island  or  that  the  bay  of  Codanus  is  mentioned  in 
literature.  This  "  immense  bay "  must  certainly  be  the 
Cattegat  with  the  southern  part  of  the  Baltic;  and  the  numer- 
ous islands  which  close  it  in  to  a  curved  strait  or  sound  must 
be  for  the  most  part  the  Danish  islands  and  perhaps  southern 
Sweden.  Whence  the  name  is  derived  we  do  not  know  for 
certain.^ 

Ptolemy  mentions  three  peoples  in  southern  Jutland,  and  calls  the  eastern- 
most of  them  "  Kobandoi."  It  is  not  likely  that  three  peoples  can  have  lived 
side  by  side  in  this  narrovyest  part  of  the  peninsula,  and  we  must  believe  that 
some  of  them  lived  among  the  Danish  islands,  where  Ptolemy  does  not  give 
the  name  of  any  people.  The  "  Kobandoi "  would  then  be  on  the  easternmost 
island,  Zealand  [cf.  Much,  1893,  pp.   198  f.].     Now  it  will  easily  be  supposed 

1  Sophus  Bugge  [1904,  p.  156,  f.]  thinks  that  Codanus  may  come  from  an 
Old  Norse  word  "  K65,"  which  meant  a  shallow  fiord  or  a  shallow  place  in 
the  water  (equivalent  to  old  Indian  "  gadha-m  ")  and  which  according  to  him 
is  akin  to  the  root  "  Ka?^  "  in  some  Norwegian  place-names.  "  Codanus  sinus  " 
"  Koda,"  accus.  "  Kodan ")  is  then  the  shallow  sea,  or  Cattegat,  especially 
near  the  Belts.  "  Codan-ovia "  is  the  island  in  "Kodan."  Miillenhoff  [1887, 
ii.  p.  284]  and  Much  [1893,  p.  207]  have  connected  "Codanus"  with  Old  High 
German  "  quoden  "  (  =  femina,  interior  pars  coxae)  from  the  same  root  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon  "  codd  "  (  =  serpent,  sack,  bag).  Middle  Low  German  "koder" 
(  =  belly,  abdomen).  Old  Norse  "  ko6ri  "  (  =  scrotum).  It  would  then  mean 
a  sack-inlet  or  sack-bay,  equal  to  the  Frisian  "  Jade,"  or  else  a  narrower  inlet 
to  an  extended  bay  of  the  sea  (the  Baltic?).  The  explanation  does  not  seem 
quite  natural.  R.  Keyser  [i858,  p.  82]  derives  the  name  from  "  Godanus," 
Le.,  the  Gothic,  although  the  Goths  at  that  time  were  usually  called  "  Gutones  " 
by  the  Romans.  Ahlenius'  suggestion  [1900,  p.  24]  that  Codanus  might  be  an 
old  copyist's  error  for  "  Toutonos  "  (Teutons),  because  one  MS.  reads  Tho- 
danus,  does  not  sound  probable.  Detlefsen  [1904,  p.  31]  thinks  that  the  name 
Codanus  is  preserved  in  Katte(n)-gat,  which  would  mean  the  inlet  (gat)  to 
Codanus,  which  would  then  com.e  to  include  the  whole  of  the  Baltic.  If  Bugge's 
explanation  given  above  is  correct,  it  might  however  mean  the  shallow  gat  or 
inlet. 

93 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

that  "  Codanus  "  and  "  Kobandoi "  have  some  connection  or  other;  the  latter 
might  be  a  corruption  of  the  name  of  a  people,  "Kodanoi"  or  "  Kodanioi." 
But  as  precisely  these  islands  and  the  south  of  Sweden  were  inhabited  by 
tribes  of  the  Danes — of  whom  several  are  mentioned  in  literature:  South 
Danes,  North  Danes,  Sea  Danes,  Island  Danes,  etc. — it  may  be  further  sup- 
posed that  "Kodanioi"  is  composed  of  "  ko  "  or  cow  i  and  "Daner"  (that  is, 
Cow-Danes),  and  means  a  tribe  of  the  latter  who  were  remarkable  for  the 
number  of  their  cows,  which  would  be  probable  enough  for  a  people  in  fer- 
tile Sealand  (or  in  Skane).-  In  this  case  "Codanus"  must  be  derived  from 
the  name  of  this  people,  just  as  most  of  the  names  of  seas  and  bays  in  these 
regions  were  taken  from  the  names  of  peoples  (e.g.,  "  Oceanus  Germanicus," 
"Mare  Suebicum,"  "Sinus  Venedicum,"  "Qusensse").  The  name  "Daner"  is 
one  of  those  names  of  peoples  that  are  so  ancient  that  their  derivation  must  be 
obscure.3  Procopius  uses  it  as  a  common  name  for  many  nations  ("  ethne  "), 
in  the  same  way  as  he  names  the  "  ethne  "  of  the  Slavs  (see  later,  p.  146).  It 
is  also  used  in  the  early  Middle  Ages  as  a  common  name  for  the  people  of  the 
North,  like  Eruli,  and  later  Normans.  It  is  therefore  natural  that  there  should 
have  been  special  names  for  the  tribes,  like  Sea-Danes,  Cow-Danes,  etc.  "  Ko- 
danovia  "  ("  ovia,"  equivalent  to  Old  High  German  "  ouwa  "  or  "  ouwia  "  for 
island,  Gothic  "  avi,"  Old  Norse  "ey")  [cf.  Grimm,  1888,  p.  505],  must  be  the 
island  on  which  this  tribe  lived,  and  this  might  then  be  Sealand  (though 
Skane  is  also  possible). 

That  the  Cimbri  lived  in  Codanus  suits  very  well,  as 
their  home  was  Jutland ;  *  on  the  other  hand,  we  know  less  about 
the  country  inhabited  by  the  Teutons.  They  must  have 
been  called  in  Germanic  "  f'eodonez "  (Gothic  "  [nudans " 
means    properly    kings),    and    the    name    has    been  connected 

^  Professor  Alf  Torp  calls  my  attention  to  R.  Much's  [1895,  P-  37]  explana- 
tion of  "  Kobandoi  "  as  a  Germanic  "  *K6wand6z,"  a  derivation  from  the  word 
cow.  This  should  therefore  be  divided  "  Kow-and-,"  where  "and"  is  a  suffix, 
and  the  meaning  would  be  a  cow-people. 

=  1  have  proposed  this  explanation  to  Professor  Alf  Torp;  he  finds  that  it 
"  might  indeed  be  possible,  but  not  altogether  probable." 

3  It  has  been  sought  to  derive  "  Daner  "  from  an  original  Germanic  word, 
equivalent  to  Anglo-Saxon  "  denu  "  (Gothic,  "  *  danei  ")  and  "  dene  "  for  dale, 
and  its  meaning  has  been  thought  to  be  "  dwellers  in  dales  or  lowlands  "  [cf. 
Much,  1895,  p.  40;  S.  Bugge,  i8go,  p.  236]. 

*  That  they  lived  in  the  sea  or  bay  must,  of  course,  mean  that  they  lived 
on  islands;  and  the  northern  part  of  Jutland,  north  of  the  Limfiord,  was  prob- 
ably looked  upon  as  an  island;  but  the  Cimbrian  Promontory  is  not  mentioned; 
it  occurs  first  in  Pliny.  The  Germanic  form  of  the  name,  "  himbroz,"  perhaps 
still  survives  in  the  Danish  district  of  Himmerland,  the  old  Himbersyssel,  with 
the  town  of  Aalborg  [cf.  Much,  1905,  p.  100]. 

94 


ANTIQUITY,   AFTER   PYTHEAS 

with  Old  Norse  f'iod,"  now  Thy  (Old  Danish  "  Thy- 
thesyssel ")  with  its  capital  Thisted,  and  the  island  Thy- 
holm,  in  north-western  Jutland  [cf.  Much,  1893,  pp.  7  ff. ;  1905,  p. 
100]. 

Whether  the  Vistula  had  its  outlet  into  Codanus  or  farther 
east  Mela  does  not  say,  nor  does  he  tell  us  whether  Sarmatia 
was  bounded  by  this  gulf;  but  this  is  not  impossible,  although 
Codanus  is  described  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  on  Germania. 
Strangely  enough,  he  says,  according  to  the  MSS.  [iii.  c.  4], 
that  "  Sarmatia  is  separated  from  the  following  [i.e.,  Scythia] 
by  the  Vistula  " ;  it  would  thus  lie  on  the  western  side  of  the 
river,  which  seems  curious.  It  might  be  possible  that  the 
islands  off  the  coast  of  Sarmatia  are  among  the  many  which 
lay  in  Codanus  (?).  As  Sarmatia  lay  to  the  east  of  Germania, 
these  islands  would  in  any  case  be  as  far  east  as  the  Baltic, 
if  not  farther;  but  there  is  no  ebb  and  flood  there  by  which 
the  connecting  land  between  them  might  be  alternately  covered 
and  left  dry;  on  the  other  hand,  the  description  suits  the  Ger- 
man North  Sea  coast.  Either  Mela's  authority  has  heard  of 
the  low-lying  lands — the  Frische  Nehrung  and  the  Kurische 
Nehrung,  for  instance — off  the  coast  of  the  amber  country,  and 
has  added  the  tidal  phenomena  from  the  North  Sea  coast,  or, 
what  is  more  probable,  the  Frisian  islands,  for  example,  may 
by  a  misunderstanding  have  been  moved  eastwards  into  Sar- 
matia, since  older  writers,  who  as  yet  made  no  distinction  be- 
tween Germania,  Sarmatia  and  Scythia,  described  them  as  lying 
far  east,  off  the  Scythian  coast  (perhaps  taken  from  the  voyage 
of  Pytheas).* 

1  There  is  a  resemblance  of  name  which  may  be  more  than  accidental  be- 
tween Mela's  "  CEneas,"  or  Pliny's  "  CEonas,"  and  Tacitus'  "  Aviones  "  ["  Ger- 
mania," c.  40],  who  lived  on  the  islands  of  North  Frisia  and  the  neighboring 
coast.  "  Aviones "  evidently  comes  from  a  Germanic  "  *awjonez,"  Gothic 
"  *aujans,"  Old  High  German  "  ouwon  "  (cf.  Old  Norse  "  ey,"  Old  High  Ger- 
man "  ouwa  "  for  island)  which  means  islanders.  In  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem 
"Widsid"  they  are  called  "  eowe  "  or  "  eowan  "  [cf.  Grimm,  1880,  p.  330  (472), 
Much,  1893,  p.  195;  1905,  p.  101].  It  is  possible  that  the  Greeks,  on  hearing 
the  Germanic  name,  connected  it  with  the  Greek  word  "  CEonae  (=  egg-eaters), 

95 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

The  emperor  Nero's  (54-68  A.D.)  love  of  show  led,  ac- 
cording to  Pliny  [Nat.  Hist.,  xxxvii.  45],  to  the  amber  coast 
of  the  Baltic  becoming  "  first  known  through  a  Roman  knight, 
whom  Julianus  sent  to  purchase  amber,  when  he  was  to  ar- 
range a  gladiatorial  combat  for  the  emperor  Nero.  This  knight 
visited  the  markets  and  the  coasts  and  brought  thence  such  a 
quantity  that  the  nets  which  were  hung  up  to  keep  the  wild 
beasts  away  from  the  imperial  tribune  had  a  piece  of  amber 
in  every  mesh;  indeed  the  weapons,  the  biers,  and  the  whole 
apparatus  of  a  day's  festival  were  heavy  with  amber.  The  larg- 
est piece  weighed  thirteen  pounds."  This  journey  must  have 
followed  an  undoubtedly  ancient  trade-route  from  the  Adriatic 
to  Camuntum  (in  Pannonia),  the  modern  Petronell  on  the  Dan- 
ube, where  the  latter  is  joined  by  the  March,  and  from  whence 
Pliny  expressly  says  that  the  distance  was  600,000  paces  to  the 
amber  coast,  which  agrees  almost  exactly  with  the  distance  in 
a  straight  line  to  Samland.  From  Camuntum  the  route  lay 
along  the  river  March,  thence  overland  to  the  upper  Vistula, 
and  so  down  this  river  to  Samland.  It  may  easily  be  under- 
stood that  much  fresh  knowledge  reached  Rome  as  a  result  of 
this  journey. 

The  elder  Pliny's  (23-79  A.D.)  statements  about  the 
North,  in  his  great  work  "  Naturalis  Historia "  (in  thirty- 
seven  books),  are  somewhat  obscure  and  confused,  and  so  far 
are  no  advance  upon  Mela;  but  we  remark  nevertheless  that 
fresh  knowledge  has  been  acquired,  and  it  is  as  though  we  get 
a  clearer  vision  of  the  new  countries  and  seas  through  the 
northern  mists.  He  himself  says,  moreover,  that  he  "  has 
received  information  of  immense  islands  which  have  recently 
been  discovered  from  Germania."  His  work  is  in  great  part 
the  fruit  of  an  unusually  extensive  acquaintance  with  older 
writers,  mostly  Greek,  but  also  Latin.  He  repeats  a  good  deal 
of  what  Mela  says,  or  draws  from  the  same  sources,  probably 
Greek. 

and  thereby  the  whole  idea  of  egg  eating  may  have  arisen,  without  anything 
having  been  related  about  it. 

96 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

His  information  about  the  North  must  have  been  obtained, 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  mainly  in  three  different  ways:  (i)  Directly 
through  the  Romans'  connection  with  Germania  and  through 
their  expeditions  to  its  northern  coasts  (under  Augustus  and 
Nero,  for  example).  Pliny  himself  lived  in  Germania  for  sev- 
eral years  (45-52  A.D.)  as  a  Roman  cavalry  commander,  and 
may  then  have  collected  much  information.  (2)  He  has  drawn 
extensively  from  Greek  sources,  whose  statements  about  the 
North  may  have  come  partly  by  sea,  chiefly  through  P5rtheas 
(perhaps  also  through  later  trading  voyages)  ;  partly  also  by 
land,  especially  through  commercial  intercourse  between  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic'  (3)  Finally  he  received  information 
from  Britain  about  the  regions  to  the  north.  This  may  be 
derived  partly  from  Greek  sources,  partly  also  from  later 
Roman  connection  wdth  Britain.  Mela  expressly  says  of  this 
country  that  new  facts  will  soon  be  known  about  it,  "  for  the 
greatest  prince  [the  Emperor  Claudius]  is  now  opening  up  this 
country,  which  has  so  long  been  closed  ...  he  has  striven 
by  war  to  obtain  personal  knowledge  of  these  things,  and  will 
spread  this  knowledge  at  his  triumph."  The  information  ob- 
tained by  Pliny  through  these  different  channels  is  often  used 
by  him  uncritically,  without  remarking  that  different  statements 
apply  to  the  same  countries  and  seas. 

His  theory  of  the  universe  was  the  usual  one,  that  the  uni- 
verse was  a  hollow  sphere  which  revolved  in  twenty-four  hours 
with  indescribable  rapidity.  "  Whether  by  the  continual  revo- 
lution of  such  a  great  mass  there  is  produced  an  immense  noise, 

1  To  this  it  might  be  objected  that  he  ought  in  that  case  to  have  obtained 
much  information  also  about  the  interior  of  Scythia  and  Sarmatia;  but  in  the 
first  place  this  is  not  certain,  as  the  special  goal  of  the  merchants  was  the  am- 
ber countries,  and  they  would  therefore  keep  to  the  known  routes  and  travel 
rapidly  through — and  in  the  second,  Pliny  actually  mentions  a  good  many 
tribes  in  the  interior.  He  says,  it  is  true  [iv.  26,  91]  of  Agrippa's  estimate  of 
the  size  of  Sarmatia  and  Scythia,  that  he  considers  such  estimates  too  uncer- 
tain in  these  parts  of  the  earth;  but  to  conclude  from  this,  as  Detlefsen  [1904, 
p.  34]  has  done,  that  Pliny's  Greek  authorities  cannot  have  received  their  infor- 
mation by  the  land  route,  seems  to  me  unreasonable,  since  Pliny  perhaps  did 
not  even  know  how  his  authorities  had  obtained  their  knowledge. 

97 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

exceeding  all  powers  of  hearing,  I  am  no  more  able  to  assert 
than  that  the  sound  produced  by  the  stars  circulating  about  one 
another  and  revolving  in  their  orbits,  is  a  lovely  and  incredibly 
graceful  harmony."  The  earth  stood  in  the  center  of  the  uni- 
verse and  had  the  form  of  a  sphere.  The  land  was  everywhere 
surrounded  by  sea,  which  covers  the  greater  part  of  the 
globe. 

In  his  description  of  the  North  [iv.  12,  88  f.]  Pliny  begins 
at  the  east,  and  relies  here  entirely  on  Greek  authorities. 

Far  north  in  Scythia,  beyond  the  Arimaspians,  "  we  come  to  the  '  Ripaean ' 
Mountains  and  to  the  district  which  on  account  of  the  ever-falling  snow,  re- 
sembling feathers,  is  called  Pterophorus.  This  part  of  the  world  is  accursed 
by  nature  and  shrouded  in  thick  darkness;  it  produces  nothing  else  but  frost 
and  is  the  chilly  hiding-place  of  the  north  wind.  By  these  mountains  and  be- 
yond the  north  wind  dwells,  if  we  are  willing  to  believe  it,  a  happy  people,  the 
Hyperboreans,  who  have  long  life  and  are  famous  for  many  marvels  which 
border  on  the  fabulous.  There,  it  is  said,  are  the  pivots  of  the  world,  and  the 
uttermost  revolution  of  the  constellations."  The  sun  shines  there  for  six 
months;  but  strangely  enough  it  rises  at  the  summer  solstice  and  sets  at  the 
winter  solstice,  which  shows  Pliny's  ignorance  of  astronomy.  The  climate  is 
magnificent  and  without  cold  winds.  As  the  sun  shines  for  half  the  year, 
"  the  Hyperboreans  sow  in  the  morning,  harvest  at  midday,  gather  the  fruit 
from  the  trees  at  evening,  and  spend  the  night  in  caves.  The  existence  of 
this  people  is  not  to  be  doubted,  since  so  many  authors  tell  us  about  them." 

Having  then  mentioned  several  districts  bordering  on  the 
Black  Sea,  Pliny  continues  [iv.  13,  94  f.]  : 

We  will  now  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  outer  parts  of  Europe,  and  turn, 
after  having  gone  over  the  Ripaean  Mountains,  towards  the  left  to  the  coast 
of  the  northern  ocean,  until  we  arrive  again  at  Gades.  Along  this  line  many 
nameless  islands  are  recorded.  Timaeus  mentions  that  among  them  there  is 
one  off  Scythia  called  Baunonia,  a  day's  sail  distant,  upon  which  the  waves  cast 
up  amber  in  the  spring.  The  remaining  coasts  are  only  known  from  doubtful 
rumors.  Here  is  the  northern  ocean.  Hecataeus  calls  it  Amalcium,  from  the 
River  Parapanisus  1  onwards  and  as  far  as  it  washes  the  coast  of  Scythia, 
which  name    [i.e.,  Amalcium]   in  the  language  of  the  natives  means  frozen." 

1  This  river  is  not  mentioned  elsewhere  and  must  be  invented,  Hecataeus  of 
Abdera  (circa  300  B.C.)  having  imagined  that  it  rose  in  mountains  of  this  name 
in  the  interior  of  Asia  and  fell  into  the  northern  ocean. 

2  This  is  certainly  wrong.  The  name  "  Amalcium  "  cannot  come  from  any 
northern  language,  but  must  come  from  the  Greek  "  malkios "  ^^fidXxco^y 
98 


ANTIQUITY,   AFTER   PYTHEAS 

Philemon  *  says  that  it  was  called  by  the  Cimbri  Morimarusa,  that  is,  the  dead 
sea;  from  thence  and  as  far  as  the  promontory  Rusbeas,  farther  out,  it  is  called 
Cronium.  Xenophon  of  Lampsacus  says  that  three  days'  sail  from  the  Scyth- 
ian coast  is  an  island,  Balcia,  of  enormous  size;  Pytheas  calls  it  Basilia.  He 
goes  on  to  mention  the  CEonae,  Hippopods,  and  Long-eared  men  in  almost  the 
same  terms  as  Mela. 

This  mention  of  lands  and  seas  in  the  North  is  of  great  in- 
terest. But  in  attempting  to  identify  any  of  them  in  Pliny's 
description  we  must  always  remember  that  to  him  and  his  Greek 
authorities,  and  to  all  writers  even  in  much  later  times,  all  land 
north  of  the  coasts  of  Scythia,  Sarmatia,  and  Germania  was  noth- 
ing but  islands  in  the  northern  ocean.  Further,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  ancient  Greeks  did  not  know  the  name  Ger- 
mania, which  was  not  introduced  until  about  80  B.C.  To  them 
Scythia  and  Celtica  (Gaul)  were  conterminous,  and  their  Scy- 
thian Coast  might  therefore  lie  either  on  the  Baltic  or  the 
North  Sea. 

It  has  not  been  possible  to  decide  where  the  name  "  Rus- 
beas "  (called  by  Solinus  "  Rubeas ")  comes  from ;  -  but  it  is 
best  understood  if  we  take  it  to  be  southern  Norway  or  Lindes- 
nass.  As  the  description  begins  at  the  east  of  the  Scythian 
coast,  it  follows  that  "  Amalcium  "  is  the  Baltic  as  far  as  the 
Danish  islands  and  the  land  of  the  Cimbri.  "  Morimarusa,"  ^ 
which  extends  from  Amalcium  to  Lindesnaes,  will  be  the  Catte- 

which  means  "stiffening,"  "freezing";  "a"  must  here  be  an  emphatic  par- 
ticle. 

'  This  Greek  is  given  as  an  authority  in  several  passages  of  Pliny,  he  is  also 
mentioned  by  Ptolemy,  but  is  not  otherwise  known.  He  may  have  lived  about 
100  B.C.  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1904,  pp.  23-25]. 

"  On  account  of  the  syllable  "  rus,"  which  is  found  in  Phoenician  names 
(e.g.,  Rusazus,  Ruscino,  Ruspino)  and  which  means  headland,  cape,  it  has  been 
sought  to  derive  it  from  the  Semitic;  but  Detlefsen  [1904,  p.  24]  thinks  it  more 
reasonable  to  suppose  it  Germanic.  Not  the  smallest  trace  of  Phoenician  names 
has  been  found  in  the  north.  R.  Keyser  [1868,  p.  165]  thinks  the  name,  which 
he  reads  "  Rubeas,"  "  is  without  doubt  the  Welsh  '  rhybyz ' "  (rhybudd  = 
sign,  warning);  but  the  word  cannot  have  had  this  form  in  Pliny's  time. 

3  The  name  may  be  either  Celtic  or  Old  Germanic.  In  Celtic  "  mori,"  Irish 
"muir,"  Cymric  "  mor,"  is  sea;  but  R.  Much  [1893,  p.  220]   thinks  that  Ger- 

99 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

gat  (in  part,  at  any  rate)  and  the  Skagerak.  Cronium  will  be 
the  North  Sea  and  the  Northern  Ocean  beyond  Lindesnes.^  We 
must  believe  that  Philemon  has  obtained  his  information  about 
the  Cimbri  (at  the  Skaw),  about  Morimarusa,  and  about  Rus- 
beas  either  from  Pytheas — whose  mention  thereof  we  must 
then  suppose  to  have  been  accidentally  omitted  by  other  authors 
— or  else  from  later  Greek  merchants.  In  the  same  way  Xeno- 
phon  must  have  got  his  Balcia,  which  is  here  named  for  the 
first  time  in  literature.  As  these  two  Greek  authors  (probably 
of  about  lOo  B.C.)  are  expressly  mentioned  as  authorities,  the 
statements  cannot  be  derived  from  the  circumnavigation  of  the 
Skaw  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  nor  from  any  other  Roman  ex- 
pedition. It  is  clear  enough  that  Pliny  himself  did  not  know 
where  Rusbeas  and  Balcia  were,  but  simply  repeated  uncrit- 
ically what  he  had  read.  On  the  other  hand,  he  knew  from  an- 
other source  that  the  sea  he  calls  Cronium  lay  far  north  of  Brit- 
ain, and  must  therefore  be  sought  for  to  the  north-west  of  the 
Scythian  coast. 

manic  "  mari "  and  Gothic  "marei"  (German  "  Meer,"  Latin  "mare")  may 
also  have  been  pronounced  formerly  with  "  o  "  "  Marusa  "  is  related  to  Irish 
"marb,"  Cymric  "marw"  for  dead;  but  according  to  Much  it  may  be  of 
Germanic  origin  and  have  had  the  form  "  *  marusaz  "  (cf.  "  *  marwaz  ")  with 
the  meaning  of  motionless,  lifeless.  "  Morimarusa  "  would  thus  be  the  "  mo- 
tionless sea,"  which  reminds  one  of  Pytheas's  kindred  ideas  of  the  sluggish, 
congealed  sea  ("  mare  pigrum,  prope  immotum  mare  ").  If  the  name  is  of 
Germanic  origin,  this  does  not  debar  its  being  derived  from  Pytheas  (and 
taken  from  him  by  Philemon) ;  he  may  have  got  it  from  Norway.  If  Rusbeas 
is  southern  Norway,  this  would  point  in  the  same  direction.  But  it  is  doubt- 
less more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  name  is  derived  from  the  Cimbri, 
who  are  mentioned  in  connection  with  it,  while  Pliny  does  not  mention  any 
people  in  Norway. 

1  Hergt  [1893,  p.  40]  thinks  that  "Morimarusa"  would  be  the  Baltic  (and 
the  Cattegat),  which  was  called  dead  because  it  had  no  tides  and  was  frozen 
in  winter.  "  Rusbeas  "  would  thus  be  the  point  of  the  Skaw.  In  this  way  he 
has  two  names  for  the  Baltic,  and  two,  if  not  three,  for  the  Skaw.  This  inter- 
pretation seems  to  be  even  less  consistent  than  that  given  above.  Pliny  in 
another  passage  mentions  (see  pp.  65,  106)  that  the  sea  called  "Cronium" 
was  a  day's  sail  beyond  Thule,  which  lay  to  the  north  of  Britain  and  within 
the  Arctic  Circle.  This  in  itself  makes  it  difficult  for  Cronium  to  begin  at 
Lindesnass,  but  if  it  has  to  begin  at  Skagen,  and  thus  be  the  Skagerak,  it  be- 
comes still  worse. 

100 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

Balcia  must  be  looked  for  most  probably  in  the  Baltic.  As 
already  mentioned  (p.  72)  it  may  be  Jutland;  but  as  it  is  de- 
scribed as  an  island  of  immense  size  and  three  days'  sail  from 
the  Scythian  coast,  it  suits  southern  Sweden  better,  although 
Pliny  has  also  the  name  Scandinavia  for  this  from  another 
source. 

After  these  doubtful  statements  about  the  north  coast  of 
Scythia,  taken  from  Greek  sources  and  interwoven  with  fables, 
Pliny  reaches  firmer  ground  in  Germania,  when  he  continues 
[iv.  13,  96] : 

"  We  have  more  certain  information  concerning  the  Ingaevones  people  who 
are  the  first  [that  is,  the  most  north-eastern]  in  Germania.  There  is  the  im- 
mense mountain  Sasvo,  not  less  than  the  Riphasan  range,  and  it  forms  a  vast 
bay  which  goes  to  the  Cimbrian  Promontory  [i.e.,  Jutland],  which  bay  is  called 
Codanus  and  is  full  of  islands,  amongst  which  the  most  celebrated  is  Scati- 
navia,  of  unknown  size;  a  part  of  it  is  inhabited,  as  far  as  known  by  the 
Hilleviones,  in  500  cantons  ('pagis'),  who  call  it  [i.e.,  the  island],  the  second 
earth,  .ffiningia  is  supposed  to  be  not  less  in  size.  Some  say  that  these  re- 
gions extend  as  far  as  the  Vistula  and  are  inhabited  by  Sarmatians  [i.e.,  prob- 
ably Slavs],  Venedi  [Wends],  Scirri,  and  Hirri;  the  bay  is  called  Cylipenus, 
and  at  its  mouth  lies  the  island  Latris.  Not  far  from  thence  is  another  bay, 
Lagnus,  which  borders  on  the  Cimbri.  The  Cimbrian  Promontory  runs  far 
out  into  the  sea  and  forms  a  peninsula  called  Tastris."  Then  follows  a  list 
of  twenty-three  islands  which  are  clearly  off  the  North  Sea  coast  of  Sleswick 
and  Germany.  Among  them  is  one  called  by  the  soldiers  "  Glaesaria  "  on  ac- 
count of  the  amber  ("glesum"),i  but  by  the  barbarians  "  Austeravia"  [i.e.,  the 
eastern  island],  or  "  Actania." 

Here  are  a  number  of  new  names  and  pieces  of  information. 
The  form  of  some  of  the  names  shows  that  here  too  Pliny  has 
borrowed  to  some  extent  from  Greek  authors;  but  his  infor- 
mation must  also  partly  be  derived  from  Roman  sources,  and 
from  Germany  itself.  His  "  Codanus "  must  be  the  Same  as 
that  of  Mela,  and  is  the  sea  adjacent  to  the  country  of  the 
Cimbri,  which  is  here  for  the  first  time  clearly  referred  to 
as  a  promontory  (promunturium).  It  is  the  Cattegat,  and, 
in  part  at  any  rate,  the  Skagerak.     The  enormous  mountain 

1  This  must  come  from  an  old  Germanic  word  "  *glez,"  Anglo-Saxon  "  glaer," 
for  amber.  It  is  the  same  word  as  the  Norwegian  "  glas  "  or  Danish  "  glar, ' 
which  has  come  to  mean  glass. 

lOI 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

"  Ssevo  "  will  then  be  most  probably  the  mountains  of  Scandi- 
navia, especially  southern  Norway,  which  forms  the  bay  of 
Codanus  in  such  a  way  that  the  latter  is  bounded  on  the  other 
side  by  the  Cimbrian  Promontory.^  It  will  then  be  in  the  same 
mountainous  country  that  we  should  look  for  the  promontory 
of  Rusbeas  (see  above). 

The  name  "  Scatinavia "  or  "  Scadinavia "  (both  spellings 
occur  in  the  MSS.  of  Pliny)  is  found  here  certainly  for  the  first 
time ;  but,  curiously  enough,  we  also  find  the  name  "  Scandia  " 
in  Pliny;  it  is  used  of  an  island  which  is  mentioned  as  near 
Britain  (see  below,  p.  io6).  "Scandia"  has  often  been  taken 
for  a  shortened  form  of  "  Scadinavia  " ;  but  if  we  consider  the 

1  The  origin  of  the  name  "  Saevo "  cannot  be  determined  with  certainty. 
Forbiger  [1848,  iii.  p.  237]  thinks  it  is  Kjolen,  and  asserts  that  it  is  a  Nor- 
wegian name  which  is  still  found  in  the  form  of  "  Seve  "  Ridge;  but  no  such 
name  is  known  in  Norway.  It  seems  possible  that  the  name  may  be  connected 
with  the  Gothic  "  saivs  "  for  sea  (cf.  Old  Norse,  "  saer  ") ;  but  it  may  also  be 
supposed  to  have  arisen  from  a  corruption  of  "svevus";  in  any  case  it  was  so 
regarded  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Solinus  says  [c.  20,  i]  following  Pliny  that 
"  Mens  Saevo  .  .  .  forms  the  commencement  of  Germany,"  but  Isidore  His- 
palensis  says  that  "  Suevus  Mons  "  forms  the  north-east  boundary  of  Germany, 
and  on  the  Hereford  Map  (about"  1280)  a  mountain  chain,  "  Mons  Sueuus," 
runs  in  northeast  Germany  to  a  bay  of  the  sea  called  "  Sinus  Germanicus," 
which  may  be  the  Baltic.  On  the  Ebstorf  map  (1284)  "Mons  Suevus"  has 
followed  the  Suevi  southwards  to  Swabia.  It  is  also  possible  that  Ptolemy's 
mountain  chain  "  Syeba  "  (2i'j;y3a.  vi.  c.  14)  in  northernmost  Asia  (62°  N.  lat.) 
has  something  to  do  with  Pliny's  "  Saevo."  There  has  been  much  guessing  as 
to  where  the  latter  is  to  be  sought:  some  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1904,  p.  28]  think  it 
was  Kjolen,  although  it  is  quite  incomprehensible  how  this  far  northern  range 
could  be  connected  with  Codanus;  others  [cf.  Lonborg,  1897,  p.  20]  that  it  was 
in  Mecklenburg  or  Pomerania  or  even  in  Jutland  [Geijer,  1825,  p.  77],  where 
no  mountain  is  to  be  found,  least  of  all  an  immense  one  ("  immensus "). 
Pliny's  words  could  be  most  simply  connected  with  the  Norwegian  mountains 
[cf.  Holz,  1894,  p.  25].  It  may  indeed  be  supposed,  as  Mullenhoff  [iv.,  1900,  p. 
600]  thinks  that  the  men  of  Augustus'  fleet,  in  5  A.D.,  may  have  seen  in  the 
Cattegat  or  heard  of  the  "  Sea-mountains "  of  the  Scandinavian  (or  rather, 
Swedish)  coast  "  *  Saivabergo  "  or  "  *  Saivagabergia,"  which  rose  up  over  the 
sea,  and  the  name  of  which  became  in  Latin  "Mons  Saevo";  but  perhaps  it  is 
just  as  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  information  may  be  derived  from  the 
Germans  of  Jutland,  who  had  communication  with  Norway  and  knew  its  high 
mountainous  country,  and  that  therefore  it  did  not  originate  with  the  low  west 
coast  of  Sweden. 
102 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

occurrence  of  both  names  in  Pliny  in  conjunction  with  the  fact 
that  Mela  has  not  yet  heard  either,  but  has,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  large  island,  "  Codanovia,"  in  the  bay  of  Codanus,  then  it 
may  seem  possible  that  originally  there  were  two  entirely  dif- 
ferent names:  "Codanovia,"  for  Sealand  (and  perhaps  for 
south  Sweden),  and  "*Skanovia"  ("  Skaney,"  latinized  into 
"  Scandia  ")  for  Skane.  By  a  confusion  of  these  two,  the  form 
"  Scadinavia "  for  south  Sweden  may  have  resulted  in  Pliny, 
instead  of  Mela's  "  Codanovia,"  while  at  the  same  time  he  got 
the  name  "  Scandia "  from  another  source.  The  latter  is  the 
only  one  used  by  Ptolemy  both  for  South  Sweden  and  the 
Danish  islands;  he  has  four  "  Scandiae,"  three  smaller  ones 
and  one  very  large  one  farther  east,  "  Scandia "  proper  (see 
below,  p.  119).  By  further  confusion  of  the  two  names,  "Sca- 
dinavia "  has  become  "  Scandinavia  "  in  later  copyists  and  au- 
thors.^ 


1  One  might  be  tempted  to  connect  the  name  "  Scadinavia  "  with  the  old 
Norse  goddess  Skade  or  SkaSi,  who  was  of  Finnish  race;  she  was  black-haired, 
lived  in  the  mountains  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  and  was  amongst  other 
things  the  goddess  of  ski-running.  The  name  Scadinavia  would  then  be  of 
Finnish  origin.  This  derivation  has  also  been  put  forward  [cf.  Mullenhoff,  ii., 
1887,  pp.  55  f.,  357  f.].  The  termination  "avi,"  "  avia,"  must  then  be  the  same 
as  "  ovia "  (see  p.  94).  This  explanation  would  take  for  granted  an  original 
non-Germanic,  so-called  "  Finnish "  population  in  south  Sweden  (which  does 
not  appear  impossible;  see  below);  but  it  will  then  be  difficult  to  explain  why 
the  name  should  have  survived  only  in  the  most  southern  part,  Skane.  Sophus 
Bugge  [1896,  p.  424]  thought  that  "Scadinavia"  (later  "  Scadanavia ")  is  re- 
lated to  the  common  Norwegian  place-name  "  SkoSvin "  or  Skoien  ("  vin " 
=  pasture)  and  may  come  from  a  lost  Old  Norse  word  "  *ska5a  "  (old  Slavonic 
"  skotii ")  for  cattle.  "  Skoi^vin "  would  then  be  cattle-pasture.  From 
"  *ska(^a  "  the  word  "  *skaBanaz  "  may  be  regularly  derived,  with  the  meaning 
of  herdsman;  and  "  Skadan-avia "  or  "Skadinavia"  will  be  herdsman's  pas- 
tures, since  the  termination  "  avia  "  may  have  the  same  meaning  as  the  Ger- 
man "  Au  "  or  "  Aue  "  (good  pasture,  meadow).  The  Old  Norse  "  Skaney  " 
("  Skani,"  now  "  Skane  ")  would  then  come  from  SkaSney,  where  the  "  S  "  has 
been  dropped  as  in  many  similar  instances.  Bugge  himself  afterwards  [1904, 
p.  156]  rejected  this  explanation  and  derived  "  Scadinavia "  from  the  same 
word  as  "  Codanus  "  (see  p.  93),  taking  it  to  mean  the  island  or  coastland  by 
"  Kodan,"  which  has  had  a  prefixed  "  s,"  while  the  long  "  o  "  has  been  changed 

103 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

In  conflict  with  this  is  the  hitherto  accepted  opinion  among  philologists 
that  the  name  "  Skane "  must  be  derived  from  "  Scadinavia,"  which  would 
regularly  become  by  contraction  "  *  Skadney,"  and  this  by  losing  the  "  d " 
would  become  "  Skaney."  But  this  similarity  may  after  all  be  accidental,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  the  hypothesis  with  the  fact  that  the  form  "  Scandia  " 
(and  not  "  *Skadnia  ")  already  appears  in  Pliny  and  later  in  Ptolemy.  To  this 
must  be  added  that  the  form  "  *  Skadney,"  or  a  similar  one,  is  not  known;  the 
first  time  we  find  the  word  Skane  in  literature  is  in  the  story  of  Wulfstan  the 
Dane  to  King  Alfred  (about  890,  see  later)  where  it  takes  the  form  "  Scon  eg," 
which  is  the  same  as  "  Skaney."  "  Skania,"  which  is  a  latinized  form  of 
"  Skaney,"  is  found  in  a  Papal  letter  of  950,  and  a  Swedish  runic  inscription  of 
about  1020  reads  "  g  Skgnu,"  which  also  is  the  same  as  "  Skaney."  It  there- 
fore appears  probable  that  this  is  the  original  ioim,  the  same  as  the  Norwe- 
gian name  "  Skaney,"  and  that  it  has  not  resulted  from  a  contraction  of  a 
"  Skadinavia."  Professor  Torp  agrees  that  a  form  "  Skanovia "  might  pos- 
sibly be  the  original. 

What  may  be  the  meaning  of  the  name  "  Hilleviones "  in 
Scadinavia  is  difficult  to  make  out;  it  does  not  occur  in  any 
other  writer,  but  is  in  all  likelihood  a  common  term  for  all  Scan- 
dinavians. One  is  reminded  of  the  "  Hermiones  "  who  occur  in 
Mela  in  the  same  connection,  but  a  little  later  Pliny  mentions 
these  also,  ".ffiningia,"  which  is  said  to  be  no  smaller  than 
Scadinavia,  is  a  riddle.  Could  it  be  a  corruption  of  a  Halsin- 
gia  or  Alsingia  (the  land  of  the  Helsingers),  a  name  for  north- 
em  Sweden,  which  thus  lay  farther  off  and  was  less  known 
than  Scandinavia?  '  When  we  read  that  these  regions  were 
supposed  to  extend  as  far  as  the  Vistula,  this  might  indicate  a 
vague  idea  that  Scadinavia  and  .ffiningia  were  connected  with 
the  mainland,  whereby  a  bay  of  the  sea  was  formed,  called 
"  Cylipenus,-  which  will  thus  be  yet  another  name  for  the  Bal- 

into  short  "  a."  This  explanation  may  be  very  doubtful.  In  many  parts  of 
Norway  a  name  "  Skaney "  is  known,  which  comes  from  "  skan "  (meaning 
crust),  and  it  may  therefore  not  be  improbable  that  the  Swedish  "  Skaney  "  or 
Skane  is  the  same  name. 

1  Ahlenius  [1900,  p.  31]  has  tried  to  explain  the  name  as  a  copyist's  error 
for  "  .ffistingia,"  which  he  connects  with  the  "  ^stii "  (Esthonians)  of  Tacitus; 
but  the  people  would  then  have  been  called  ^stingii  rather  than  ^stii.  One 
might  then  be  more  inclined  to  think  of  Jordane's  "  Astingi  "  or  "  Hazdingi," 
the  same  as  the  Old  Norse  Haddingjar  (Hallinger). 

-  R.  Keyser  [1868,  p.  89]  explains  the  name  as  the  same  as  in  the  Old  Norse 
name  for  a  people,  "  Kylpingar,"  in  northern  Russia,  neighbors  of  the   Finns. 

104 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER   PYTHEAS 

tic,  taken  from  a  new  source;  but  the  whole  may  be  nothing 
more  than  an  obscure  statement. 

"  Latris,"  which  lay  at  the  mouth  of  Cylipenus,  may  be  one 
of  the  Danish  islands,  and  one  may  perhaps  be  reminded  of 
Sealand  with  the  ancient  royal  stronghold  of  "  Lethra "  or 
Leire,  Old  Norse  "  Hleidrar."  The  bay  of  "  Lagnus,"  i  which 
borders  on  the  Cimbri,  must  then  be  taken  as  a  new  name  for 
the  Cattegat,  while  "  Tastris  "  may  be  Skagen.  According  to 
the  sources  Pliny  has  borrowed  from,  we  thus  get  the  following 
names  for  the  same  parts:  for  the  Baltic  or  parts  thereof, 
"  Amalcium "  and  "  Cylipenus,"  and  perhaps  in  part  "  Coda- 
nus  " ;  for  the  Cattegat,  "  Lagnus  "  and  "  Codanus  " ;  for  the 
Skagerak,  "  Morimarusa,"  in  part  also  "  Codanus  " ;  for  South 
Sweden,  "  Scadinavia  "  and  "  Balcia  " ;  for  Jutland  or  Skagen, 
"  Promunturium  Cimbrorum "  and  "  Tastris."  At  any  rate, 
this  superfluity  of  names  discloses  increased  communication, 
through  many  channels,  with  the  North.  Communication  with 
the  North  is  also  to  be  deduced  from  Pliny's  mention  [viii.  c. 
i5>  39]  of  sri  animal  called  "  achlis,"  as  a  native  of  those  coun- 
tries. 

It  had  "  never  been  seen  among  us  in  Rome,  though  it  had  been  described 
by  many."  It  resembles  the  elk  [alcis],  "but  has  no  knee-joint,  for  which 
reason  also  it  does  not  sleep  lying  down,  but  leaned  against  a  tree,  and  if  the 
tree  be  partly  cut  through  as  a  trap,  the  animal,  which  otherwise  is  remark- 
ably fleet,  is  caught.  Its  upper  lip  is  very  large,  for  which  reason  it  goes 
backwards  when  grazing,  so  as  not  to  get  caught  in  it  if  it  went  forward."  It 
might  be  thought  that  this  elk-like  animal  was  a  reindeer;  but  the  mention  of 
the  long  upper  lip  and  the  trees  suits  the  eik  better,  and  it  may  have  been  re- 
lated of  this  animal  that  it  was  caught  by  means  of  traps  in  the  forest.  The 
fable  that  it  slept  leaning  against  a  tree  may  be  due  to  the  similarity  between 
the  name  "  achlis "  (which  may  be  some  corruption  or  other,  perhaps  of 
"  alces  ")  and  "  acclinis  "  (  =  leaning  on). 

Finally,  Pliny  had  a  third  source  of  knowledge  about  the 
North  through  Britain,  which  to  him  was  a  common  name  for 

He  thinks  that  there  may  have  been  an  Old  Norse  name  "  Kylpinga-botn  "  for 
the  Baltic;  but  it  is  not  likely  that  this  word  Kylpingar  existed  at  that  time. 

1  Keyser  [1868,  p.  80]  derives  the  word  from  Gothic  "lagus"  (correspond- 
ing to  Old  Norse  "  logr  ")  for  sea. 

105 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

all  the  islands  in  that  ocean.  Some  of  the  statements  from 
this  quarter  originated  with  Pytheas;  but  later  information 
was  added;  Pliny  himself  mentions  Agrippa  as  an  author- 
ity. Among  the  British  Isles  he  mentions  [iv.  i6,  103] : 
"  40  '  Orcades '  separated  from  each  other  by  moderate 
distances,  7  '  Acmodae,'  and  30  '  Hebudes.'  "  His  7  "  Acmodae  " 
(which  in  some  MSS.  are  also  called  "  H^cmodae ")  are, 
clearly  enough,  Mela's  7  Haemodae,  and  probably  the  Shet- 
land Islands,  while  the  30  "  Hebudes  "  are  the  Hebrides,  which 
are  thus  mentioned  here  for  the  first  time  in  any  known 
author. 

After  referring  to  a  number  of  other  British  islands  "  and 
the  '  Glassias,'  scattered  in  the  Germanic  Ocean,  which  the  later 
Greeks  call  the  '  Electrides,'  because  amber  (electrum)  is 
found  in  them,"  ^  Pliny  continues  [iv.  16,  104]:  "The  most 
distant  of  all  known  islands  is  '  Tyle  '  (Thule),  where  at  the 
summer  solstice  there  is  no  night,  and  correspondingly  no  day 
at  the  winter  solstice."  -  .  .  .  "  Some  authors  mention  yet 
more  islands,  *  Scandia,'  '  Dumna,'  '  Bergos,'  and  the  largest 
of  all,  '  Berricen,'  from  which  the  voyage  is  made  to  Tyle. 
From  Tyle  it  is  one  day's  sail  to  the  curdled  sea  which  some 
call  '  Cronium.'  "  We  do  not  know  from  what  authors  Pliny 
can  have  taken  these  names,  nor  where  the  islands  are  to  be 
looked  for;  but  as  Thule  is  mentioned,  we  must  suppose  that 
in  any  case  some  of  them  come  originally  from  Pytheas.  As 
Scandia  comes  first  among  these  islands,  one  is  led  to  think 
that  Dumna  and  the  two  other  enigmatical  names  are  of 
Germanic   origin.     "  Dumna "   might   then   remind   us   of   Scan- 

'  The  same  islands  which  are  here  spoken  of  as  British,  have  been  pre- 
viously referred  to  (see  above,  p.  loi)  by  Pliny  as  Germanic,  or  rather  as  a 
single  island  with  the  name  "  Glassaria."  This  is  another  proof  of  how  he 
draws  directly  from  various  sources  without  even  taking  the  trouble  to  har- 
monize the  statements.  In  this  case  he  has  probably  found  the  islands  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  facts  about  Britain,  or  a  journey  to  that  country. 
And  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  original  source  is  Pytheas. 

-In  his  ignorance  of  astronomy  Pliny  adds  that  "this  is  said  to  continue 
alternately  for  six  months." 

106 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

dinavian  names  such  as  Duney,  Donna  (in  Nordland),  or  the 
like;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  it  comes  from  the  Celtic 
"  dubno "  or  "  dumno "  (=  deep),  and  may  be  the  name  of 
an  island  off  Scotland.  "  Bergos  "  may  remind  us  of  the  Old 
Norse  word  "  bjarg "  or  "  berg."  '  It  is  not  so  easy  with 
the  strange  name  "  Berricen,"  which  in  some  MSS.  has 
the  form  "  Verigon "  or  "  Nerigon "  (cf.  above,  p.  58). 
If  the  first  reading  is  the  correct  one,  it  suggests  an  origin  in 
an  Old  Norse  "  ber-ig "  ("ber"  =  bear;  the  meaning  would 
therefore  be  "  bear-y,"  full  of  bears),  not  an  unsuitable  name 
for  southern  Norway,  whence  the  journey  was  made  to  Thule 
or  northern  Norway ;  but  this  is  doubtful.  If  "  Nerigon  "  is 
the  correct  reading,  it  will  not  be  impossible,  in  the  opinion 
of  Professor  Torp,  that  this,  as  Keyser  supposed,  may  be  the 
name  Norway,  which  in  Old  Norse  was  called,  by  Danes  for 
example,  "*  Norj^raegaR "  (like  "  AustravegaR,"  and  "  Ves- 
travegaR  ").  If  any  of  the  names  of  these  islands  are  really 
Germanic,  like  Scandia,  then  they  cannot,  as  some  have 
thought,  refer  to  islands  off  Scotland  or  to  the  Shetlands,  as 
these  were  not  yet  inhabited  by  Norsemen.  The  islands  in 
question  must  therefore  be  looked  for  in  Norway.  It  is  impor- 
tant that  Scandia  is  mentioned  first  among  them  in  connection 
with  Britain,  and  that  at  the  same  time  another  is  described 
as  the  largest  of  them  all,  and  as  lying  on  the  way  to  Thule. 
This  again  points  to  communication  by  sea  between  the  British 
Isles  and  Scandinavia,  of  which  we  found  indications  four  hun- 
dred years  earlier. 

In  84  A.D.  Agricola,  after  his  campaign  against  the 
Caledonians,  sent  his  fleet  round  the  northern  point  of  Scotland, 
"  whereby,"  Tacitus  -  tells  us,  "  it  was  proved  that  Britain 
is  an  island.  At  the  same  time  the  hitherto  unknown  islands 
which  are  called  '  Orcadas '  (the  Orkneys)  were  discovered 
and  subdued.     Thule  also  could  be  descried  in  the  distance;  but 

'  Some  MSS.  read  "  Verges." 

=  Tacitus,  "Agricola,"  c.  10;  see  also  c.  38.     Cf.  also  Bunbury,  1883,  "•  P- 
342- 

107 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

the  fleet  had  orders  not  to  go  farther,  and  winter  was  coming 
on.  Moreover  the  water  is  thick  and  heavy  to  row  in;  it  is 
said  that  even  wind  cannot  stir  it  to  much  motion.  The  reason 
for  this  may  be  the  absence  of  land  and  mountains,  which  other- 
wise would  give  the  storms  increased  power,  and  that  the  enor- 
mous mass  of  continuous  ocean  is  not  easy  to  set  in  motion." 
This  Thule  must  have  been  Fair  Island  or  the  Shetland  Isles, 
and  this  is  the  most  northern  point  reached  by  the  Romans, 
so  far  as  is  known.  The  idea  of  the  heavy  sea,  which  is  not 
moved  by  the  winds,  is  the  same  that  we  met  with  in  early  an- 
tiquity (see  pp.  40,  69). 

In  the  preceding  summer  some  of  Agricola's  soldiers — a  cohort  of  Usipii, 
enlisted  in  Germania  and  brought  to  Britain — had  mutinied,  killed  their  cen- 
turion and  seized  three  ships,  whose  captains  they  forced  into  obedience. 
"Two  of  them  aroused  their  suspicions  and  were  therefore  killed;  the  third 
undertook  the  navigation,"  and  they  circumnavigated  Britain.  "  They  were 
soon  obliged  to  land  to  provide  themselves  with  water  and  to  plunder  what 
they  required;  thereby  they  came  into  frequent  conflict  with  the  Britons,  who 
defended  their  possessions;  they  were  often  victorious,  but  sometimes  were 
worsted,  and  finally  their  need  became  so  great  that  they  took  to  eating  the 
weakest;  then  they  drew  lots  as  to  which  should  serve  the  others  as  food. 
Thus  they  came  round  Britain  [Le.,  round  the  north],  were  driven  out  of  their 
course  through  incompetent  navigation,  and  were  made  prisoners,  some  by  the 
Frisians  and  some  by  the  Suevi,  who  took  them  for  pirates.  Some  of  them 
came  to  the  slave-markets  and  passed  through  various  hands  until  they 
reached  Roman  Germania,  becoming  quite  remarkable  persons  by  being  able  to 
relate  such  marvellous  adventures."  1  It  is  possible  that  certain  inaccurate 
statements  may  have  foimd  their  way  to  Rome  as  the  result  of  this  voyage. 

Cornelius  Tacitus,  who  wrote  his  "  Germania  "  in  the  year 
98  A.D.,  was  a  historian  and  ethnographer,  not  a  geographer. 
His  celebrated  work  has  not,  therefore,  much  to  say  of  the 
northern  lands;  he  has  not  even  a  single  name  for  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  has  some  remarkable  statements  about  the 
peoples,  especially  in  Sweden,  which  show  that  since  the  time 
of  Pliny  fresh  information  about  that  part  of  the  world  must  have 
reached  Rome. 

Tacitus  makes  the  "  Suebi,"  or  "  Suevi,"  inhabit  the 
greater  part   of   Germany  as  far  as  the   frontier  of  the   Slavs 

5  Tacitus,  "  Agricola,"  c.  28. 
108 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

(Sarmatians)  and  Finns  on  the  east  (and  north?).  The  name, 
which  possibly  means  the  "  hovering "  people  and  is  due  to 
their  roving 
existence,  is 
perhaps  rather 
to  be  regarded 
as  a  common 
designation  for 
various  G  e  r- 
manic  tribes. 
After  them  he 
called  the  sea 
on  the  eastern 
coast  o  f  Ger- 
many, i.e.,  the 
Baltic,  the 
Suebian  Sea 
("Suebicium 
mare ").  On 
its  right-hand 
(eastern)  shore 
dwelt  the 
"  .a:stii "  (i.e., 
Esthonians; 
perhaps  from 
"  aistan  "  =  t  o 
honor,  that  is, 
the  honorable 
people  ?). 
"Their  cus- 
tom   and   dress 

are  Hke  those  of  the  Suevi,  but  their  language  more  nearly 
resembles  the  British"  (!).  "The  use  of  iron  is  rare 
there,  that  of  sticks  [i.e.,  clubs,  fustium]  common."  They 
also  explore  the  sea  and  collect  amber  in  shallow  places 
and    on    the    shore    itself.     But    they    do    not    understand    its 

109 


The  nations  of  Tacitus  [after  K.  Miller] 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

nature  and  origin,  and  it  long  lay  disregarded  among  things 
cast  up  by  the  sea,  "  until  our  luxury  made  it  esteemed." 
"  They  have  no  use  for  it,*  they  gather  it  in  the  rough,  bring 
it  unwrought,  and  are  surprised  at  the  price  they  receive " 
[c.  45].  From  this  it  may  be  concluded  that  there  was 
constant  trading  communication  between  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Baltic,  and  that  Roman  merchants  had  probably 
penetrated  thither. 

"  In  the  Ocean  itself  (ipso  in  Oceano)  lie  the  commu- 
nities of  the  Suiones,  a  mighty  people  not  only  in  men  and 
arms,  but  also  in  ships."  The  Suiones,  who  are  first  mentioned 
by  Tacitus,  are  evidently  of  the  same  name  as  the  Svear  (Old 

Norse  "  sviar," 
Anglo  -  Saxon 
"  s  ve  on  ")  or 
Swedes."  Their 
ships  were  re- 
markable  for  hav- 
i  n  g  a  prow, 
"  prora,"  at  each 
Boat  found  at  Nydam,  near  Flensburg.  Third  end  (i.  e.,  they  were 
century   A.D.     70   feet  long    [after   C.   Engel-         the    same   fore    and 

aft) ;  they  had  no 
sail,  and  the  oars  were  not  made  fast  in  a  row,  but  were  loose, 
so  that  they  could  row  with  them  now  on  one  side,  now  on  the 
other,  "  as  on  some  rivers."  ^  In  other  words,  they  had  open 
rowlocks,  as  in  some  of  the  river  boats  of  that  time,  and  as 
is  common  in  modern  boats;  the  oars  were  not  put  out 
through  holes  as  in  the  Roman  ships,  and  as  in  the  Viking 
ships    (the    Gokstad    and    Oseberg    ships).     The    boat    of    the 

1  Here  Tacitus  is  mistaken,  as  amber  was  extensively  employed  for  amulets 
and  ornaments  even  in  the  Stone  Age  (see  above,  p.  32). 

=  Much  [1905,  p.  133]  connects  the  name  vifith  "  ge-swio"  =  "  related  by 
marriage."  It  may  be  just  as  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  name  means 
"  burners  "  ("  svier  ")  since  they  cleared  the  land  by  setting  fire  to  the  forests 
[cf.  Miillenhoff,  iv.,  1900,  p.  499]. 

2  Cf.  Miillenhoff,  iv.,  igoo,  p.  502. 

no 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

Iron  Age  which  was  dug  up  at  Nydam  had  just  such  open 
rowlocks. 

The  Suiones  (unlike  the  other  Germanic  peoples)  esteemed 
wealth,  and  therefore  they  had  only  one  lord;  this  lord 
governed  with  unlimited  power,  so  much  so  that  arms  were 
not  distributed  among  the  people,  but  were  kept  locked  up, 
and  moreover  in  charge  of  a  thrall,*  because  the  sea  prevented 
sudden  attacks  of  enemies,  and  armed  idle  hands  (i.e.,  armed 
men  unemployed)  are  apt  to  commit  rash  deeds   [c.  44]. 

The  neighbors  of  the  Suiones,  probably  on  the  north,  are 
the  "  Sitones  "  [c.  45],  whom  Tacitus  also  regards  as  Germanic. 
"  They  are  like  the  Suiones  with  one  exception,  that  a  woman 
reigns  over  them;  so  far  have  they  degenerated  not  only 
from  liberty,  but  also  from  slavery.  Here  Suebia  ends  (Hie 
Suebiae  finis)."  Suebia  was  that  part  of  Germany  inhabited 
by  the  Suevi.  It  looks  as  though  Tacitus  considered  that 
courage  and  manliness  decreased  the  farther  north  one  went. 
The  Suiones  allow  themselves  to  be  bullied  by  an  absolute 
king,  who  sets  a  thrall  to  guard  their  weapons,  and  the  Sitones 
are  in  a  still  worse  plight,  in  allowing  themselves  to  be  governed 
by  a  woman.  The  Sitones  are  not  mentioned  before  or  after 
this  in  literature,  and  it  seems  as  though  the  name  must  be 
due   to   some   misunderstanding.^     It   has   been    supposed    that 

1  This  might  be  thought  to  show  that  arms  of  metal,  especially  of  iron, 
were  still  rarities  in  Scandinavia,  which  only  rich  and  powerful  chiefs  could 
obtain,  and  this  might  agree  with  the  statement  about  the  esteem  in  which 
wealth  was  held  among  this  particular  people.  But  perhaps  the  more  probable 
explanation  is  that  the  idea  may  have  arisen  through  foreign  merchants  (South 
Germans  or  Romans)  having  been  present  at  the  great  annual  "  things  "  and 
fairs  at  some  well-known  temple,  e.g.,  Upsala  [cf.  Miillenhoff,  1900,  p.  503], 
where  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  on  account  of  the  sacredness  of  the  spot  it 
was  forbidden  to  carry  arms,  and  where  arms  were  therefore  left  in  a  special 
"  weapon-house,"  like  those  which  were  later  attached  to  churches  in  Norway, 
and  there  guarded  by  a  thrall.  The  foreigners  may  have  seen  this  without  un- 
derstanding its  meaning,  and  Tacitus  may  have  given  his  own  explanation. 

-  The  name  "  Sitones  "  reminds  one  forcibly  of  the  "  Sidones  "  mentioned 
by  Strabo  and  Ptolemy  [cf.  Geijer,  1825,  p.  82];  but  the  difficulty  is  that  Strabo 
includes  the  latter  among  the  Bastarni,  with  the  Peucini  who  lived  on  the 
north  and  east  of  the  Carpathians  and  therefore  far  to  the  south  of  the  Baltic 

III 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

they  were  Finns  ("  Kvsens ")  ^  in  northern  Sweden,  and 
their  name  may  then  have  been  taken  as  the  word  for  woman 
("  kvasn,"  or  "  kvan,"  mostly  in  the  sense  of  wife  (cf.  EngUsh 
queen),  and  from  this  the  legend  of  womanly  government  may 
have  been  formed  -  in  the  same  way  as  Adam  of  Bremen  later 
translates  the  name  Cvenland  (Kvasnland)  by  "  Terra  femi- 
narum,"  and  thus  forms  the  m3rth  of  the  country  of  the 
Amazons.  But  this  explanation  of  the  statement  of  Tacitus 
may  be  doubtful.^  We  have  already  seen  that  Mela  mentions 
a  people  in  Scythia,  the  "  Masotides,"  who  were  governed  by 
women,  and,  as  we  have  said,  it  would  not  have  seemed  un- 
reasonable to  him  that  the  government  of  women  increased 
farther  north. 

Of  the  regions  on  the  north  Tacitus  says :  "  North  of  the 
Suiones  lies  another  sluggish  and  almost  motionless  sea  (mare 
pigrum  ac   prope   immotum) ;   that   this   encircles   and   confines 

[cf.  Ahlenius,  igoo,  p.  36].  Ptolemy's  "Sidones"  also  lived  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Carpathians,  and  to  the  north  of  them.  But  it  is  nevertheless  pos- 
sible that  Tacitus  may  have  heard  a  similar  vyord  and  confused  it  with  this 
name,  or  he  may  have  heard  a  story  of  a  reigning  woman  or  queen  among 
Strabo's  Sidones,  somewhere  north  of  the  Carpathians,  and  thought  that  any- 
thing so  unheard-of  could  only  be  found  in  the  farthest  north.  It  is  also  to  be 
noted  that  Tacitus  himself  mentions  "  Peucini "  or  "  Bastarnae  "  as  neighbors 
of  the  "Fenni"  (Finns),  and  therefore  inhabiting  some  distant  tract  bordering 
on  the  unknown  in  the  north-east;  on  the  other  hand  he  does  not  mention  the 
Sidones  in  this  connection,  though  they  are  spoken  of  in  conjunction  with  the 
Bastarnas  both  by  Strabo  before  him  and  by  Ptolemy  after  him.  Add  to  this 
the  similarity  of  names  between  Sitones  and  Suiones,  and  it  seems  likely  that 
he  thought  they  must  be  near  one  another.  MiillenhofI  [ii.,  1887,  P.  9]  sup- 
poses that  the  word  "  Sitones  "  may  have  been  an  appellative  which  has  been 
mistaken  for  the  name  of  a  people,  and  he  connects  it  with  Gothic  "  *  sitans," 
Old  Norse  "  *  setar,"  from  the  same  root  as  the  Norwegian  "  sitte "  (to  sit, 
occupy).  If  this  is  correct  we  might  suppose  it  to  be  used  in  the  sense  of 
colonists  (cf.  Norwegian  "opsitter").  Much  [1905,  p.  31]  suggests  that  per- 
haps it  may  be  derived  from  Old  Norse  "  siSa "  =  to  practice  witchcraft  (cf. 
"  seid  ")  and  mean  sorcerers.  On  the  "Sidones"  cf.  Much,  1893,  pp.  135,  187, 
188;  Miillenhoff,  1887,  pp.  109,  325. 

'  Wiklund   [1895,  pp.  103-117]   thinks  that  the  "Kvaens"  in  north  Sweden 
were  not  Finns,  but  colonists  from  Svearike  (middle  Sweden). 

=  Cf.  Zeuss,  1837,  p.  157;  Miillenhoff,  ii.,  1887,  p.  10. 

^  Cf.  Lonborg,  1897,  p.  136;  Ahlenius,  1900,  p.  37. 
112 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

the  earth's  disc  is  rendered  probable  by  the  fact  that  the  last 
light  of  the  setting  sun  continues  until  the  sun  rises  again,  so 
clearly  that  the  stars  are  paled  thereby.  Popular  belief  also 
supposes  that  the  sound  of  the  sun  emerging  from  the  ocean 
can  be  heard,  and  that  the  forms  of  the  gods  are  seen  and  the 
rays  beaming  from  his  head.  There  report  rightly  places  the 
boundaries  of  nature."  As  mentioned  above  (see  p.  io8),  he 
thought  that  even  to  the  north  of  the  Orkneys  the  sea  was 
thick  and  sluggish. 

Tacitus  is  the  first  author  who  mentions  the  Finns 
(Fenni),  but  whether  they  are  Lapps,  Kvaens,  or  another 
race  cannot  be  determined.  He  says  himself:  "I  am  in  doubt 
whether  to  reckon  the  Peucini,  Venedi,  and  Fenni  among 
the  Germans  or  Sarmatians  (Slavs)."  He  speaks  of  the  Fenni 
apparently  as  dwelling  far  to  the  north-east,  beyond  the 
Peucini,  or  Bastarnae,  from  whom  they  are  separated  by 
forests  and  mountains,   which   the  latter  overrun   as   robbers. 

Among  the  Fenni  amazing  savagery  and  revolting  poverty  prevail.  They 
have  no  weapons,  no  horses,  no  houses  [non  penates,  perhaps  rather,  no 
homes] ;  i  their  food  is  herbs,  their  clothing  skins,  their  bed  the  ground.  Their 
only  hope  is  in  their  arrows,  which  from  lack  of  iron  they  provide  with  heads 
of  bone.  Hunting  supports  both  men  and  women;  for  the  women  usually  ac- 
company the  men  everywhere  and  take  their  share  of  the  spoils.  Their  infants 
have  no  other  protection  from  wUd  beasts  and  from  the  rain  than  a  hiding-place 
of  branches  twisted  together;  thither  the  men  return,  it  is  the  habitation  of  the 
aged.  Nevertheless  this  seems  to  them  a  happier  life  than  groaning  over  tilled 
fields,  toiling  in  houses  and  being  subject  to  hope  and  fear  for  their  own  and 
others'  possessions.  Without  a  care  for  men  or  gods  they  have  attained  the 
most  difficult  end,  that  of  not  even  feeling  the  need  of  a  wish.  Beyond  them 
all  is  fabulous,  as  that  the  'Hellusii'  and  'Oxionae'  have  human  heads  and 
faces,  but  the  bodies  and  limbs  of  wild  beasts,  which  I  leave  on  one  side  as 
undecided. 

These  Fenni  of  Tacitus  consequently  live  near  the  outer 
limits  of  the  world,  where  all  begins  to  be  fable.  The  name 
itself  carries  us  to  northern  Europe,  or  rather  Scandinavia, 
for  it  was  certainly  only  the  North  Germans,  especially  the 
Scandinavians,  who  used  the  word  as  a  name  for  their  non- 

1  Cf.  Baumstark,  1880,  p.  329;  Miillenhoff,  iv.,  1900,  p.  516. 

113 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Aryan  neighbors.  No  doubt  it  appears  from  the  description 
that  the}'  hved  in  northern  Russia,  and  were  only  separated 
from  the  Peucini  by  forests  and  mountains;  but,  as  was  said 
above,  Tacitus  had  neither  sense  for  nor  interest  in  geography. 
If  he  heard  of  a  savage  and  barbarous  Finn-people  far  in  the 
North,  and  if  it  suited  him  on  other  grounds  to  bring  them 
in  beyond  the  Peucini  or  Bastamae,  but  before  the  Hellusii 
and  Oxiones,  who  not  only  led  the  life  of  beasts,  but  even  had 
their  bodies  and  limbs,  then  certainly  no  geographical  diffi- 
culties would  stop  him.  It  is  of  interest  that  these  Fenni  are 
described  as  a  typical  race  of  hunters,  using  the  bow  as  their 
special  weapon.  As  Tacitus  only  states  that  they  had  no 
horses,  he  had  doubtless  heard  of  no  other  domestic  animals 
amongst  them.  Consequently  it  is  not  likely  that  they 
were  reindeer  nomads.  The  interweaving  of  branches  that 
the  children  were  hidden  in,  to  which  the  men  returned, 
and  which  was  the  dwelling  of  the  old  men,  must  be  the 
tent  of  the  Finns,  which  was  raised  upon  branches  or  stakes. 
As  early  as  Herodotus  [iv.  23]  we  read  of  the.  Argippasans, 
who  were  also  Mongols,  that  "  every  man  lived  under  a 
tree,  over  which  in  winter  he  spread  a  white,  thick  covering 
of  felt."  It  is  clearly  a  tent  that  is  intended  here  also  [cf. 
Miillenhoff,  ii.,  1887,  pp.  40,  352].  The  idea  that  among  the 
barbarians  men  and  women  frequently  did  the  same  work 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  uncommon  in  antiquity,  and  it 
can  scarcely  have  been  regarded  as  something  peculiar  to  the 
Finns;  in  this  connection  it  is  no  doubt  derived  from  the 
legends  of  the  Amazons.  Herodotus,  and  after  him  Mela 
(see  above,  pp.  87,  f),  describes  such  a  similarity  between  men 
and  women  among  the  Scythian  people  and  the  Sauroma- 
tians;  and  Diodorus  [iv.  20,  v.  39]  says  of  the  Ligurians 
that  men  and  women  shared  the  same  hard  labor. 

The  so-called  Dionysius  Periegetes  wrote  in  the  time  of 
the  emperor  Hadrian  (i  17-138  A.D.)  a  description  of  the 
earth  in  1187  verses,  which  perhaps  on  account  of  its  simple 
brevity  and  metrical  form  was  used  in  schools  and  widely 
114 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

circulated  [cf.  K.  Miller,  vi.,  1898,  p.  95].  But  unfortunately  the 
author  has  merely  drawn  from  obsolete  Greek  sources,  such 
as  Homer,  Hecataeus,  Eratosthenes  and  others,  and  has  nothing 
new  to  tell  us.  The  whole  continent  was  surrounded  by  ocean 
like  an  immense  island;  it  was  not  quite  circular,  but  some- 
what prolonged  in  the  direction  of  the  sun's  course  (i.e., 
towards  the  east  and  west). 

After  Greek  scientific  geography  had  had  its  most  fruitful 
life  in  the  period  ending  with  Eratosthenes  and  Hipparchus 
it  still  sent  out  such  powerful  shoots  as  the  physical-mathe- 
matical geographer  Posidonius  and  the  descriptive  geographer 
Strabo;  but  after  them  a  century  and  a  half  elapses  until 
we  hear  of  its  final  brilliant  revival  in  Marinus  of  Tyre 
and  Claudius  Ptolemy,  whose  work  was  to  exercise  a  decisive 
influence  upon  geography  thirteen  centuries  later. 

Marinus's  writings  are  lost,  and  we  know  nothing  more  of 
him  than  is  told  us  by  his  younger  contemporary  Ptolemy, 
who  has  relied  upon  him  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  whose 
great  forerunner  he  was.  He  must  have  lived  in  the  first  half 
of  the  second  century  A.D.  He  made  an  exhaustive  attempt 
to  describe  every  place  on  the  earth  according  to  its  latitude 
and  longitude,  and  drew  a  map  of  the  world  on  this  principle. 
He  also  adopted  Posidonius's  insufficient  estimate  of  the 
earth's  circumference  (instead  of  that  of  Eratosthenes),  and 
his  exaggerated  extension  of  the  "  cecumene "  towards  the 
east;  and  as  this  was  passed  on  from  him  to  Ptolemy  he 
exercised  great  influence  upon  Columbus,  amongst  others, 
who  thus  came  to  estimate  the  distance  around  the  globe  to 
India  at  only  half  its  real  length.  In  this  way  Marinus  and 
Ptolemy  are  of  importance  in  the  discovery  not  only  of  the 
West  Indies,  but  also  of  North  America  by  Cabot,  and  in  the 
earliest  attempts  to  find  a  north-west  passage  to  China.  Thus 
"  accidental "  mistakes  may  have  far-reaching  influence  in 
history. 

Claudius  Ptolemaeus  marks  to  a  certain  extent  the 
highest    point    of    classical    geographical    knowledge.     He    was 

115 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

perhaps  born  in  Egypt  about  loo  A.D.  He  must  have  lived 
as  an  astronomer  at  Alexandria  during  the  years  126  to 
141,  and  perhaps  longer;  and  he  probably  outlived  the 
emperor  Antoninus  Pius,  who  died  in  161  A.D.,  but  we  do  not 
know  much  more  of  him.  In  his  celebrated  astronomical 
work,  most  generally  known  by  its  Arabic  title  of  "  Almagest  " 
(because  it  first  reached  mediaeval  western  Europe  in  an  Arabic 
translation),  he  gave  his  well-known  account  of  the  universe 
and  of  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  had  such 
great  influence  in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  and  on  Columbus 
and  the  great  discoveries.  His  celebrated  "  Geography "  in 
eight  books  (written  about  150  A.D.)  is,  as  he  himself  tells  us, 
for  the  most  part  founded  upon  the  now  lost  work  of  Marinus, 
and  shows  a  great  advance  in  geographical  comprehension 
upon  the  practical  but  unscientific  Romans.  With  the  scientific 
method  of  the  Greeks  an  attempt  is  here  made  to  collect  and 
co-ordinate  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  time  into  a 
tabulated  survey,  for  the  most  part  dry,  of  countries,  places, 
and  peoples,  with  a  number  of  latitudes  and  longitudes,  mostly 
given  by  estimate.  His  information  and  names  are  in  great 
part  taken  from  the  so-called  "  Itineraries,"  which  were 
tabular  and  consisted  chiefly  of  graphic  routes  for  travellers 
with  stopping-places  and  distances,  and  which  were  due  for 
the  most  part  to  military  sources  (especially  the  Roman  cam- 
paigns), and  in  a  less  degree  to  merchants  and  sailors. 

Cartographical  representation  was  by  him  radically  im- 
proved by  the  introduction  of  correct  projections,  with  con- 
verging meridians,  of  which  a  commencement  had  already 
been  made  by  Hipparchus.  His  atlas,  which  may  originally 
have  been  drawn  by  himself,  or  by  another  from  the  detailed 
statements  in  his  geography,  gives  us  the  only  maps  that 
have  been  preserved  from  antiquity,  and  thus  has  a  special 
interest. 

As  to  the  North,  we  find  remarkably  little  that  is  new 
in  Ptolemy,  and  on  many  points  he  shows  a  retrogression 
even,  as  it  seems,  from  Pytheas;  but  the  northern  coast 
116 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

of  Europe  begins  to  take  definite  shape  past  the  Cimbrian 
Peninsula  to  the  Baltic.  His  representation  of  Britain  and 
Ireland  (Ivernia),  which  is  based  upon  much  new  informa- 
tion/ was  certainly  a  great  improvement  on  his  predecessors, 
even  though  he  gives  the  northern  part  of  Scotland  (Cale- 
donia) a  strange  deflection  far  to  the  east,  which  was  re- 
tained on  later  maps  (in  the  fifteenth  century).  He  mentions 
five  Ebudes  (Hebrides)  above  Ivernia,  and  says  further  [ii,  3] : 

The  following  islands  lie  near  Albion  off  the  Orcadian  Cape;  the  island  of 
Ocitis  (32°  40'  E.  long.,  60°  45'  N.  lat.)  the  island  of  Dumna  (30°  E. 
long.,  61°  N.  lat.),  north  of  them  the  Orcades,  about  thirty  in  number,  of 
which  the  most  central  lies  in  30°  E.  long.,  61°  40'  N.  lat.  And  far  to  the  north 
of  them  Thule,  the  most  western  part  of  which  lies  in  29°  E.  long.,  63°  N. 
lat.,  the  most  eastern  part  in  31°  40'  E.  long.,  63°  N.  lat.,  the  most  northern  in 
30°  20'  E.  long.,  63°  15'  N.  lat.,  the  most  southern  in  30°  20'  E.  long.,  62°  40' 
N.  lat.,  and  the  central  part  in  30°  20'  E.  long.,  63°  N.  lat. 

Ptolemy  calculates  his  degrees  of  longitude  eastwards  from 
a  meridian  O  which  he  draws  west  of  the  Fortunate  Isles  (the 
Canaries),  the  most  western  part  of  the  earth.  It  will  be  seen 
that  he  gives  Thule  no  very  great  extent.  His  removing  it 
from  the  Arctic  Circle  south  to  63°  is  doubtless  due  to  the 
men  of  Agricola's  fleet  having  thought  they  had  sighted 
Thule  north  of  the  Orkneys.     In  his  eighth  book  [c.  3]  he  says: 

Thule  has  a  longest  day  of  twenty  hours,  and  it  is  distant  west  from  Alex- 
andria two  hours.  Dumna  has  a  longest  day  of  nineteen  hours  and  is  distant 
westward  two  hours. 

It  is  evident  that  these  "  hours  "  are  found  by  calculation, 
and  are  merely  a  way  of  expressing  degrees  of  latitude  and 
longitude;  they  cannot  therefore  be  referred  to  any  local 
observation  of  the  length  of  the  longest  day,  &c.  It  is  curious 
that  Ptolemy  only  mentions  Ebudes  and  Orcades,  and  not 
the  Shetland  Isles;  perhaps  they  are  included  among  his 
thirty  Orcades. 

He    represents    the    Cimbrian    Peninsula     (Jutland)     with 

'  Many  of  his  place-names  in  Ireland  especially  point  to  frequent  com- 
munication, probably  due  to  trade,  between  this  island  and  the  continent,  per- 
haps with  Gaul. 

117 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

remarkable  correctness,  though  making  it  lean  too  much 
towards  the  east,  like  Scotland.  Upon  it  "  dwelt  on  the 
west  the  Sigulones,  then  the  Sabalingii,  then  the  Cobandi, 
above  them  the  Chali,  and  above  these  again  and  farther 
west    the    Phundusii,    and    more    to    the    east    the    Charudes 


The  northern  part  of  Ptolemy's  map  of  the  world,  Europe  and  Asia 


[Harudes  or  Horder;  cf.  p.  85],  and  to  the  north  of  all  the 
Cimbri."  It  was  suggested  above  (p.  94)  that  possibly 
the  name  Cobandi  might  be  connected  with  the  Codanus  of 
Mela  and  Pliny.  The  Sabalingii,  according  to  Much  [1905, 
p.  11],  may  be  the  same  name  as  Pjrtheas's  Abalos  (cf.  p.  70), 
which  may  have  been  written  Sabalos  or  Sabalia,  and  may 
have  been  inhabited  by  Aviones.  To  the  north  of  the  Cimbrian 
Chersonese  Ptolemy  places  three  islands,  the  "  Alociae," 
118 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER    PYTHEAS 

which  may  be  taken  from  the  Halligen  islands,  properly 
"  Hallagh  "  [cf.  Detlefsen,  1904,  p.  61],  off  the  coast  of  Sles- 
wick.' 

To  the  east  of  the  peninsula  are  the  four  so-called  "  Scandiae,"  three  small 


>m  the  Rome  edition  of  Ptolemy  of  1490  [Nordenskibld,  1889] 

[the  Danish  islands],  of  which  the  central  one  lies  in  41°  30'  E.  long.,  58°  N. 
lat.;  but  the  largest  and  most  eastern  lies  off  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula;  the 


1  Much  [1895,  a.  p.  34]  thinks  that  the  "  Alocia;"  may  have  been  some  small 
rocky  islands  which  have  now  disappeared.  Upon  them  he  supposes  there  may 
have  been  colonies  of  auks,  which  have  given  them  their  name,  as  in  Gothic, 
for  instance,  they  may  have  been  called  "  *  alako."  The  hypothesis  is  improb- 
able; even  if  any  such  rocky  islets  had  been  washed  away  by  the  sea  they  must 
have  left  behind  submerged  rocks,  and  none  such  are  known  in  the  sea  off 
Jutland. 


119 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


westernmost  part  of  this  island  lies  in  43°  E.  long.,  58°  N.  lat.,  the  eastern- 
most in  46'  E.  long.,  58°  N.  lat.,  the  northernmost  in  44"  30'  E.  long.,  58°  30'  N. 
lat.,  the  southernmost  in  45°  E.  long.,  57°  40'  N.  lat.  But  this  one  [i.e.,  south 
Scandinavia]  is  called  in  particular  Scandia,  and  the  western  part  of  it  is  in- 
habited by  the  Chaedini,  the  eastern  by  the  Phavonae  and  Phiresii,  the  northern 
by  the  Phinni,  the  southern  by  the  Gutae  and  Dauciones,  and  the  central  by  the 
Levoni. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Scandia  would  not  be  much  larger 
than  Thule:  20'  longer  from  west  to  east,  and  only  10'  longer 
from  north  to  south. 


The  Scandinavian  North  according  to  Ptolemy.     The  most  northern  people  in 
Scandinavia,  the  Phinni,  are  omitted  in  this  map,  as  in  most  MSS. 

The  "  Chasdini "  must  be  the  Norwegian  "  HeiSnir "  or 
"  Heinir,"  whose  name  is  preserved  in  HeiSmprk,  Hedemarken 
[cf.  Zeuss,  1837,  p.  159;  Much,  1893,  p.  188;  Mullenhoff, 
1900,  p.  497].  This  is  the  first  time  that  an  undoubtedly  Nor- 
wegian tribe  is  mentioned  in  known  literature.  "  Phinni " 
(Finns)  is  only  found  in  one  MS.;  but  as  Jordanes  (Cassio- 
dorus)  says  that  Ptolemy  mentions  seven  tribes  in  Scandia, 
it  must  have  been  found  in  ancient  MSS.  of  his  work,  and  it 
occurs  here  for  the  first  time  as  the  name  of  a  people  in  Scan- 
dinavia. Ptolemy  also  mentions  "  Phinni "  in  another  place 
as  a  people  in  Sarmatia  near  the  Vistula  (together  with  Gythones 
or  Goths) ;  but  these  must  be  connected  with  the  "  Fenni " 
of  Tacitus,  and  doubtless  also  belong  originally  to  Scandinavia. 
The  "  Gutae "  must  be  the  Gauter  or  Goter,  unless  they  are 
120 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER   PYTHEAS 

the  Guter  of  Gotland  (?).  The  "  Dauciones,"  it  has  been 
supposed,  may  possibly  be  the  Danes,  and  the  "  Levoni " 
might  perhaps  be  the  Hilleviones  mentioned  by  Pliny,  whose 
name  does  not  otherwise  occur.  Thus  a  knowledge  of  Scan- 
dinavia slowly  dawns  in  history. 

To  the  north  of  the  known  coasts  and  islands  of  Europe 
there  lay,  according  to  Ptolemy  and  Marinus,  a  great  con- 
tinuous ocean,  which  was  a  continuation  of  the  Atlantic.  On 
the  extreme  north-west  was  "  the  Hyperborean  Ocean,  which 
was  also  called 
the  Congealed 
{-  iTZTiro?)  or 
*  Cronius '  or 
the  Dead 
{»€xp6?)         Sea." 

North  of  Brit- 
ain was  the 
Deucaledonian 
Ocean,  and  east 
of  Britain  the 
Germanic 
Ocean     as     far 

as  the  eastern  side  of  the  Cimbrian  Chersonese,  that  is,  the 
North  Sea  and  a  part  of  the  Baltic.  This  was  joined  by  the 
Sarmatian  Ocean,  with  the  Venedian  (i.e.,  Wendish)  Gulf, 
from  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula  north-east-wards.  The  Baltic 
was  still  merely  an  open  bay  of  the  great  Northern  Ocean. 
But  whether  the  latter  extended  farther  to  the  east,  round 
the  north  of  the  cecumene,  making  it  into  an  island,  was 
unknown.  Ptolemy  and  Marinus  therefore  put  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  known  continent  at  the  latitude  of  Thule, 
and  made  this  continent  extend  into  the  unknown  on  the 
north-east  and  east;  they  thus  furnish  the  latest  development 
of  the  doctrine  that  the  oecumene  was  not  an  island  in  the 
universal  ocean,  since  they  considered  that  guesses  about 
the  regions  beyond  the  limits  of  the  really  known  were  inad- 

121 


v-'*^^/' — '   ^ 

\ 

— /■vO:-.-'/         ..    /  /  / 

/"^wv^jLwv  i_      W^- 

Ptolemy's  map  of  Europe,  etc.,  compared  v/ith  the 
true  conditions  (in  dotted  line) 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


missible,  and  no  one  had  reached  any  coast  in  those  directions; 
for  the  Caspian  Sea  was  closed  and  not  connected  with  the 
Northern  Ocean.  In  the  same  way  the  extent  of  Africa  towards 
the  south  was  uncertain,  and  they  connected  it  possibly  with 
south-eastern  Asia,  to  the  south  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  which 
thus  also  became  enclosed. 

Ptolemy   wrote   at   a  time   when  the   Roman   Empire   was 
at    its   height,    and    he   had   the    advantage    of   being   able,    as 

a  Greek,  to  combine 
the  scientific  lore  of 
the  older  Greek 
literature  with  the 
mass  of  information 
which  must  inevitably 
have  been  collected 
from  all  parts  of  the 
world  by  the  extensive 
administration  of  this 
gigantic  empire.  His 
work,  like  that  of 
Marinus,  was  there- 
fore    a     natural     fruit 


1  ■          .t'^fe 

(JA^mJL        y     0        0 

ma 

1 

0 

1 

• 

e 

J 

1 

St /^^  ".^.n'^-SS 

s^car  .^y*v.^g=jS 

^^^            ' 

1 

s 

1 

A, 

P 

mtA 

1 

Ptolemy's  tribes  in  Denmark  and  South  Sweden 


which  grew  by  the  stream  of  time.  But  the  stream  had  just 
then  reached  a  backwater;  he  belonged  to  a  languishing 
civilization,  and  represents  the  last  powerful  shoot  which 
Greek  science  put  forth.  Some  thirteen  centuries  were  to 
elapse  before,  by  the  changes  of  fate,  his  works  at 
last  made  their  mark  in  the  development  of  the  world's 
civilization.  In  the  centuries  that  succeeded  him  the 
Roman  Empire  went  steadily  backwards  to  its  downfall,  and 
literature  degenerated  rapidly;  it  sank  into  compilation 
and  repetition  of  older  writers,  without  spirit  or  origin- 
ality. It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  the  literature  of 
later  antiquity  gives  us  nothing  new  about  the  North, 
although  communication  therewith  must  certainly  have 
increased. 
122 


ANTIQUITY,    AFTER   PYTHEAS 

The  geographical  author  of  antiquity  most  widely  read 
in  the  Middle  Ages  was  C.  Julius  Solinus  (third  century 
A.D.),  who  for  the  most  part  repeated  passages  from  Pliny, 
with  a  marked  predilection  for  the  fabulous.  All  that  is  to  be 
found  in  the  MSS.  of  his  works  about  Thule,  the  Orcades 
and  the  Hebudes,  beyond  what  we  read  in  Pliny,  consists,  in 
the  opinion  of  Mommsen  [1895,  p.  219),  of  later  additions  by 
a  copyist  (perhaps  an  Irish  monk)  of  between  the  seventh 
and  ninth  centuries,  and  as  this  has  a  certain  interest  for 
our  country  it  will  be  dealt  with  later  under  this  period. 

Rufus  Festus  Avienus  lived  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourth  century  A.D.  and  was  proconsul  in  Africa  in  366 
and  in  Achaea  in  372.  His  poem  "  Ora  Maritima "  is  mainly 
a  translation  of  older  Greek  authors  and,  as  mentioned  above 
(p.  37),  is  of  interest  from  his  having  used  an  otherwise 
unknown  authority  of  very  early  origin.  His  second  descrip- 
tive poem  is  a  free  translation  of  Dionysius  Periegetes. 

Amongst  other  authors  who  in  this  period  of  literary 
degeneration  compiled  geographical  descriptions  may  be 
named:  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (second  half  of  the  fourth 
century)  in  his  historical  works,  Macrobius  ^  (circa  400  A.D.), 
the  Spaniard  Paulus  Orosius,  whose  widely  read  historical 
work  (circa  418  A.D.)  has  a  geographical  chapter,  Marcianus 
of  Heraclea  (beginning  of  the  fifth  century),  Julius  Honorius 
(beginning  of  the  fifth  century),  Marcianus  Capella  (about 
470  A.D.),  Priscianus  Cassariensis  (about  500  A.D.)  and  others. 

Their  statements  about  the  northern  regions  are  repetitions 
of  older  authors  and  contain  nothing  new. 

Much  of  the  geographical  knowledge  of  that  time  was 
included  in  the  already  mentioned  (p.  116)  "Itineraries," 
which  were  probably  illustrated  with  maps  of  the  routes. 
Partial  copies  of  one  of  them  are  preserved  in  the  so-called 
"Tabula  Peutingeriana "  [cf.  K.  Miller,  vi.  1898,  pp.  90  ff.], 
which  came  to  be  of  importance  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

1  Macrobius'  division  of  the  earth  into  zones  after  Parmenides  with  an 
equatorial  ocean  like  Mela,  in  graphic  representation,  had  great  influence  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages. 

123 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Thus  at  the  close  of  antiquity  the  lands  and  seas  of 
the  North  still  lie  in  the  mists  of  the  unknown.  Many 
indications  point  to  constant  communication  with  the 
North,  and  now  and  again  vague  pieces  of  information  have 
reached  the  learned  world.  Occasionally,  indeed,  the  clouds 
lift  a  little,  and  we  get  a  glimpse  of  great  countries,  a  whole 
new  world  in  the  North,  but  then  they  sink  again  and  the 
vision  fades  like  a  dream  of  fairyland.  It  seems  as  though  no 
one  felt  scientifically  impelled  to  make  an  effort  to  clear  up 
these  obscure  questions. 

Then  followed  restless  times,  with  roving  warlike  tribes 
in  Central  Europe.  The  peaceful  trading  communication 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  northern  coasts  was 
broken  off,  and  with  it  the  fresh  stream  of  information  which 
had  begun  to  flow  in  from  the  North.  And  for  a  long  time 
men  chewed  the  cud  of  the  knowledge  that  had  been  collected 
in  remote  antiquity.  But  Greek  literature  was  more  and 
more  forgotten,  and  it  was  especially  the  later  Roman  authors 
they  lived  on. 


124 


Map  of  the  World  from  a  ninth-century  MS.  [in  the  Strasburg  Library] 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

THUS  it  came  about  that  the  geographical  knowledge 
of  later  antiquity  shows  nothing  but  a  gradual 
decline  from  the  heights  which  the  Greeks  had  early  reached, 
and  from  which  they  had  surveyed  the  earth,  the  universe, 
and  their  problems  with  an  intellectual  superiority  that  inclines 
one  to  doubt  the  progress  of  mankind.  The  early  Middle  Ages 
show  an  even  greater  decline.  Rome,  in  spite  of  all,  had  formed 
a  sort  of  scientific  center,  which  was  lost  to  Western  Europe 
by  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  To  this  must  be  added  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  which,  for  a  time  at  any  rate, 
gave  mankind  new  values  in  life,  whereby  the  old  ones  came 
into  disrepute.  Knowledge  of  distant  lands,  or  of  the  still 
more  distant  heavens,  was  looked  upon  as  something  like 
folly  and  madness.  For  all  knowledge  was  to  be  found  in 
the  Bible,  and  it  was  especially  commendable  to  reconcile  all 
profane  learning  therewith.  When,  for  instance,  Isaiah  says 
of  the   Lord  that  he   "  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the   earth " 

125 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


(i.e.,  the  round  disc  of  the  earth),  and  "  stretcheth  out  the 
heavens  as  a  curtain,  and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to 
dwell  in"  [xl.  22],  and  that  he  "spread  forth  the  earth" 
[xlii.  5],  and  when  in  the  Book  of  Job  [xxvi.  10]  it  is  said  that 
"  he  hath  compassed  the  waters  with  bounds,  until  the  day 
and  night  come  to  an  end,"  such  statements  did  not  agree 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth;  this  was 

therefore  regarded 
with  disfavor  by 
the  Church;  the 
circular  disc  sur- 
rounded by  Ocean, 
which  was  the  idea 
of  the  childhood  of 
Greece,  was  more 
suitable,  and  ac- 
cording to  Ezekiel 
[v.  5-6]    Jerusalem 


Cosmas'  Map  of  the  World.  The  surface  of  the  lay  in  the  center  of 
earth  is  rectangular  and  surrounded  by  ocean,  this  disC.  It  was 
which  forms  four  bays:  the  Mediterranean  on  the      • •i._ui_        ii,„i 

^   .,,„,„,,     ^  ,  inevitable      that 

west  (with  the  Black  Sea),  the  Caspian  above  on 

the  right,  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  Persian  Gulf  below  knowledge  of     the 

on   the   right.     The   Nile    (below),   the    Euphrates  earth     and  of     its 

and  the   Tigris  flow  from  the  outer  world  under  farthest  limits 

the  ocean  to  the  earth's  surface  ,         ij      v  .•n 

should     be     still 

more   crippled   in   such  an  age,   and   this   is   especially  true   of 

knowledge  of  the  North. 

Those  writers  who  in  the  early  part  of  the  Middle  Ages 

occupied   themselves   with   such   worldly   things   as   geography, 

confined   themselves   mostly  to   repeating,   and   in   part   further 

confusing,    what    Pliny   and   later    Latin    authors   had    said    on 

the  subject.     The  most  widely  read  and  most  frequently  copied 

were   Solinus  and  Capella,  also   Macrobius  and  Orosius.     This 

was   the    intellectual   food    which   replaced   the    science    of   the 

Greeks.     Truly  the  course  of  the  human  race  has  its  alternations 

of  heights  and  depths ! 

126 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 


But  even  if  the  migrations  had  for  a  time  interrupted 
peaceful  trading  intercourse  with  the  North,  they  were  also 
the  means  of  new  facts  becoming  known,  and  it  was  inevitable 
that  in  the  long  run  these  migrations,  and  subsequent  contact 
with  the  Northern  peoples,  should  leave  their  mark  on  the 
science  of  geography.  The  knowledge  of  the  North  shown  in 
the  literature  of  the  early  Middle  Ages  is  thus  to  be  compared 
with  two  streams, 
often  quite  inde- 
pendent  of  one 
another;  the  one 
has  its  source  in 
classical  learning 
and  becomes  ever 
thinner  and  more 
turbid;  the  other  is 
the  fresh  stream  of 
new  information 
from  the  North, 
which  we  find  in  a 
Cassiodorus  or  a 
Procopius.  Some- 
times these  two 
streams  flow  together,  as  in  an  Adam  of  Bremen,  and  they 
may  then  form  a  mixture  of  like  and  unlike,  in  which  it  is  often 
hopeless  to  find  one's  way. 

It  is  true  that  some  were  found,  even  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages,  who  maintained  the  doctrine  of  the  earth's  spherical  form, 
whereas  early  Christian  authors,  such  as  Lactantius  (ob.  330) 
and  Severianus  (ob.  407),  had  asserted  that  it  was  a  disc; 
the  latter  also  thought  that  the  heaven  was  divided  into  two 
storeys,  an  upper  and  a  lower,  with  the  visible  heaven  as  a  divi- 
sion; the  earth  formed  the  floor  of  this  celestial  house.  One 
ancient  notion  (in  Empedocles,  Leucippus,  Democritus)  was 
that  this  disc  of  the  earth  stood  on  a  slant,  increasing  in  height 
towards  the  north,  which  was  partly  covered  by  high  moun- 

127 


Cosmas'  representation  of  the  Universe,  with 
the  mountain  in  the  north  behind  which  the 
Sun  goes  at  night.  The  Creator  is  shown 
above 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

tains,  the  Rhipaean  and  Hyperborean  ranges  (as  in  Ptol- 
emy's map).  These  childish  ideas  took  their  most  remark- 
able shape  in  the  "  Christian  Topography,"  in  twelve  books, 
of  the  Alexandrine  monk,  Cosmas  Indicopleustes  (sixth  cen- 
tury). In  his  younger  days  he  had  travelled  much  as  a 
merchant  and  seen  many  vi^onderful  things,  amongst  others 
the  wheel-ruts  left  by  the  Children  of  Israel  during  their  wan- 
derings in  the  wilderness.  The  Jews'  tabernacle,  he  thought, 
was  constructed  on  the  same  plan  and  in  the  same  proportions 
as  the  world.  Consequently  the  earth's  disc  had  to  be  made 
four-cornered,  with  straight  sides,  and  twice  as  long  as  it  was 
broad.  The  ocean  on  the  west  formed  a  right  angle  with  the 
ocean  on  the  south.  On  the  north  was  a  high  mountain ;  behind 
it  the  sun  was  hidden  in  its  course  during  the  night. ^  As  the 
sun  in  winter  traverses  the  sky  in  a  lower  orbit,  it  appears  to  us 
as  though  it  receded  behind  the  mountain  near  its  foot,  and  it 
stays  away  longer  than  in  summer,  when  it  is  higher.  The  whole 
vault  of  heaven  was  like  a  four-cornered  box  with  a  vaulted  lid, 
which  was  divided  by  the  firmament  into  two  storeys.  In 
the  lower  one  were  the  earth,  the  sea,  the  sun,  moon  and  stars; 
in  the  upper  one  the  waters  of  the  sky.  The  stars  were  car- 
ried round  in  circles  by  angels,  whom  God  at  the  creation 
appointed  to  this  heavy  task.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
earth  to  revolve,  simply  because  its  axis  must  be  supported  by 
something,  and  of  what  kind  of  material  could  it  be  made?  He 
had  nothing  else  worth  mentioning  to  say  about  t'ne  North. 
But  notions  such  as  these  had  their  influence  on  the  earliest  me- 
diaeval maps. 

The  first  mediaeval  author  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  definitely 
gave  new  information  of  value  about  the  countries  and  peoples 
of  the  North,  was  the  Roman  senator  and  historian  Cassio- 
dorus  (born  at  Scylaceum,  it  is  supposed  about  468),  who  was 
an    eminent    statesman    under    Theodoric,    King    of   the    Goths 

1  Similar  conceptions  are  to  be  found  in  Avienus   ("  Ora  Maritima,"  w., 
644-663),  and  are  derived  from  ancient  Greek   geographers   (Anaximenes,  cf. 
MuUenhoff,  L,  1870,  p.  77)- 
128 


THE   EARLY   MIDDLE  AGES 

(493-526).  After  the  victories  of  Belisarius  in  Italy,  Cassio- 
dorus  retired  into  a  monastery  in  southern  Italy  (Bruttium), 
which  he  himself  had  founded,  and  died  there,  perhaps  100 
years  old  (about  570).  He  wrote  several  valuable  works, 
amongst  them,  probably  by  order  of  Theodoric,  one  in  twelve 
books  on  "  The  Origin  and  Deeds  of  the  Goths,"  which  was 
perhaps  completed  about  534.  This  work  has  unfortunately 
been  lost,  and  we  only  know  it  through  the  Goth  Jordanes, 
who  has  made  excerpts  from  it.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
[cf.  Mommsen,  1882,  Prooemium,  p.  xxxvii.]  that  Cassio- 
dorus's  knowledge  of  Gothic  was  defective,  and  that  he  has 
borrowed  his  information  about  the  North,  especially  Scan- 
dinavia, from  a  contemporary,  or  perhaps  somewhat  older 
writer,  Ablabius,  who  is  referred  to  in  Jordanes'  book  as  "  the 
distinguished  author  of  a  very  trustworthy  history  of  the 
Goths,"  but  who  is  otherwise  unknown.  Through  the  Nor- 
wegian king  Rodulf  and  his  men  (see  below,  under  Jordanes), 
or  other  Northerners  who  visited  Theodoric,  and  who  were 
"  mightier  than  all  the  Germans  in  courage  and  size  of 
body,"  first-hand  information  was  brought  concerning  the  coun- 
tries of  the  North,  which  Ablabius,  who  certainly  knew  Gothic, 
may  have  written  down,  and  from  him  Cassiodorus  has  thus 
derived  his  statements,  which  again  are  taken  from  him  by  Jor- 
danes. In  addition  to  various  classical  authors,  some  Latin 
and  some  Greek,  of  whom  Jordanes  mentions  many  more 
than  he  has  made  use  of,  it  is  probable  that  Cassiodorus 
has  also  drawn  upon  the  maps  of  Roman  itineraries  [cf, 
Mommsen,  1882,  Prooemium,  p.  xxxi.],  and  perhaps  also  Greek 
maps. 

The  Gothic  monk  (or  priest)  Jordanes  lived  in  the  sixth 
century,  and  wrote  about  551  or  552  a  book  on  "  The  Origin 
and  Deeds  of  the  Goths"  ("  De  origine  actibusque  Getarum"), 
which  for  the  most  part  is  certainly  a  poor  repetition  of  the 
substance  of  Cassiodorus's  great  work  on  the  same  subject; 
and  in  fact  he  tells  us  this  himself,  with  the  modest  addition 
that  "  his  breath  is  too  weak  to  fill  the  trumpet  of  such  a  man's 

129 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

mighty  speech."  It  is  true  that  Jordanes  asserts  in  his 
preface  that  he  has  only  had  the  loan  of  the  work  to  read  for 
three  days,  for  which  reason  he  cannot  give  the  words  but 
only  the  sense,  and  thereto,  he  says,  he  has  added  what  was 
suitable  "  from  certain  histories  in  the  Greek  [which  he  did 
not  understand]  and  Latin  tongues,"  and  he  has  mixed  it 
with  his  own  words.  But  this  is  only  said  to  hide  his  lack  of 
originality;  for  the  book  evidently  contains  long  literal  ex- 
cerpts from  the  work  of  Cassiodorus,  while  Jordanes'  Latin 
becomes  markedly  worse  when  he  tries  to  walk  alone.  Not 
even  the  preface  to  the  work  is  original;  this  is  copied  from 
Rufinus's  translation  of  Origen's  commentary  on  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans. 

Of  the  uttermost  ocean  we  read  in  Jordanes: 

"  Not  only  has  no  one  undertaken  to  describe  the  impenetrable  uttermost 
bounds  of  the  ocean,  but  it  has  not  even  been  vouchsafed  to  any  one  to  ex- 
plore them,  since  it  has  been  experienced  that  on  account  of  the  resistance 
of  the  seaweed  and  because  the  winds  cease  to  blow  there,  the  ocean  is  im- 
penetrable and  is  known  to  none  but  Him  who  created  it."  This  conception 
has  a  striking  resemblance  to  Avienus'  Ora  Maritima  (see  above,  pp.  37-40), 
and  may  very  probably  be  derived  from  it. 

Of  the  western  ocean  he  says,  amongst  other  things: 

"  But  it  has  also  other  islands  farther  out  in  the  midst  of  its  waves,  which 
are  called  the  Balearic  Isles,  and  another  Mevania;  likewise  the  Orcades, 
thirty-three  in  number,  and  yet  not  all  of  them  are  cultivated  [inhabited].  It 
has  also  in  its  most  western  part  another  island,  called  Thyle,  of  which  the 
Mantuan  [i.e.,  Virgil]  says:  '  May  the  uttermost  Thule  be  subject  to  thee.' 
This  immense  ocean  has  also  in  its  arctic,  that  is  to  say,  northern  part,  a  great 
island  called  Scandza,  concerning  which  our  narrative  with  God's  help  shall 
begin;  for  the  nation  [the  Goths]  of  whose  origin  you  inquired,  burst  forth 
like  a  swarm  of  bees  from  the  lap  of  this  island,  and  came  to  the  land  of 
Europe." 

After  having  spoken  of  Ptolemy's  (also  Mela's)  mention 
of  this  island,  which  according  to  his  version  of  the  former  had 
the  shape  of  "  a  citron  leaf,  with  curved  edges  and  very  long  in 
"  proportion  to  its  breadth  "  (this  cannot  be  found  in  Ptolemy), 
and  lay  opposite  the  three  mouths  of  the  Vistula,  he  continues : 

"  This  [island]  consequently  has  on  its  east  the  greatest  inland  sea  in  the 
world,  from  which  the  River  Vagi  discharges  itself,  as  from  a  belly,  profusely 
130 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

into  the  Ocean.^  On  the  western  side  it  [the  island  of  Scandza]  is  surrounded 
by  an  immense  ocean  and  on  the  north  it  is  bounded  by  the  before-mentioned 
unnavigable  enormous  ocean,  from  which  an  arm  extends  to  form  the  Ger- 
manic Ocean  (' Germanicum  mare'),  by  widening  out  a  bay.  There  are 
said  to  be  many  more  islands  in  it,  but  they  are  small,-  and  when  the  wolves 
on  account  of  the  severe  cold  cross  over  after  the  sea  is  frozen,  they  are  re- 
ported to  lose  their  eyes,  so  that  the  country  is  not  only  inhospitable  to  men 
but  cruel  to  animals.  But  in  the  island  of  Scandza,  of  which  we  are  speaking, 
although  there  are  many  different  peoples,  Ptolemy  nevertheless  only  gives  the 
names  of  seven  of  them.  But  the  honey-making  swarms  of  bees  are  nowhere 
found  on  account  of  the  too  severe  cold.  In  its  northern  part  live  the  people 
Adogit,  who,  it  is  said,  in  the  middle  of  the  summer  have  continuous  light  for 
forty  days  and  nights,  and  likewise  at  the  time  of  the  winter  solstice  do  not 
see  the  light  for  the  same  number  of  days  and  nights;  sorrow  thus  alternating 
with  joy,  so  are  they  unlike  others  in  benevolence  and  injury;  and  why? 
Because  on  the  longer  days  they  see  the  sun  return  to  the  east  along  the 
edge  of  the  axis  [i.e.,  the  edge  of  the  pole,  that  is  to  say,  along  the  northern 
horizon],  but  on  the  shorter  days  it  is  not  thus  seen  with  them,  but  in  another 
way,  because  it  passes  through  the  southern  signs,  and  when  the  sun  appears 
to  us  to  rise  from  the  deep,  with  them  it  goes  along  the  horizon.  But  there 
are  other  people  there,  and  they  are  called  Screrefennae,  who  do  not  seek  a  sub- 
sistence in  corn,  but  live  on  the  flesh  of  wUd  beasts  and  the  eggs  of  birds,^  and 
such  an  enormous  number  of  eggs   [lit.,  spawn]  is  laid  in  the  marshes  that 

1  This  description  would  best  suit  the  Baltic  (and  the  Belts)  as  forming 
the  eastern  side  of  Scandza;  but  the  term  inland  sea  ("lacus")  does  not  agree 
well  with  Scandza  being  an  island  and  lying  just  opposite  the  Vistula  which 
"with  its  three  mouths  discharged  itself  into  the  Ocean";  and  in  the  rear 
of  the  Vidivarii  at  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula  "  dwelt  likewise  on  the  Ocean 
the  .Sstii,  that  very  peace-loving  people"  [v.  36,  cf.  Tacitus].  Besides  which 
Jordanes'  Germanic  Ocean  may  be  the  Baltic,  although  his  very  obscure  de- 
scription may  equally  well  suit  the  North  Sea,  or  both  together.  The  suppo- 
sition that  the  great  inland  sea  and  the  River  Vagi  might  be  Lake  Ladoga 
and  the  Neva  [cf.  Geijer,  1825,  p.  100]  or  Lake  Vener  and  the  Gota  River  [cf. 
Lonborg,  1897,  p.  25,  and  Ahlenius,  1900,  p.  44]  does  not  agree  with  the  de- 
scription of  Jordanes,  which  distinctly  asserts  that  it  lay  on  the  east  side  of 
Scandza  in  contradistinction  to  the  immense  ocean  on  the  west  and  north. 
The  fact  must  be  that  Jordanes  had  very  obscure  ideas  on  this  point,  and  this 
has  made  his  description  confusing. 

=  These  small  islands  have  been  taken  to  be  the  Danish  islands  [cf.  Ahle- 
nius, igoo,  p.  43] ;  but  as  we  hear  in  immediate  connection  with  them  of  severe 
cold  and  of  the  wolves  losing  their  eyes  on  crossing  the  frozen  sea  ("  con- 
gelato  mari"),  our  thoughts  are  led  farther  north  and  we  would  be  inclined 
to  take  them  for  the  Aland  islands. 

'  This  reminds  us  of  Mela's  statement  respecting  the  CEneans,  who  lived 
on  fen-fowl's  eggs  (see  above,  pp.  gi,  95). 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

it  serves  both  for  the  increase  of  their  kind  [i.e.,  of  the  birds']  and  for  a  plen- 
tiful supply  for  the  people." 

The  "  Screrefennas "  of  Jordanes  (in  other  MSS.  "  Cre- 
fenne,"  "  Rerefennae,"  etc.)  are  certainly  a  corruption  of 
the  same  word  as  Procopius's  "  Scrithifini "  (Skridfinns),  and 
were  a  non-Germanic  race  inhabiting  the  northern  regions 
(see  later).  The  mention  of  these  people,  together  with  their 
neighbors  the  "  Adogit,"  who  had  the  midnight  sun  and  a 
winter  night  of  forty  days  (cf.  also  Procopius),  shows  without 
a  doubt  that  Jordanes',  or  rather  Cassidorus's,  authority  had 
received  fresh  information  from  the  most  northern  part  of 
Scandinavia,  possibly  through  the  Norwegian  king  Rodulf  and 
his  men. 

The  mysterious  name  "  Adogit "  is  somewhat  doubtful. 
P.  A.  Munch  [1852,  p.  93],  and  later  also  Miillenhoflf  [ii.  1887, 
p.  41],  thought  that  it  might  be  a  corruption  of  Halogi  ("  Haley- 
gir,"  or  Helgelanders)  in  northern  Norway.  Sophus  Bugge 
[1907]  does  not  regard  this  interpretation  as  possible,  as  this 
name  cannot  have  had  such  a  form  at  that  time;  he  (and,  as 
he  informs  us,  Gustav  Storm  also  independently)  thinks  that 
"  adogit "  is  corrupted  from  "  adogii,"  i.e.,  "  andogii,"  meeUi- 
ing  inhabitants  of  And  or  Ando  in  Vesteralen.*  The  ter- 
mination -ogii  he  takes  to  be  a  mediaeval  way  of  writing  what 
was  pronounced  -oji,  i.e.,  islanders.-  But  it  should  be  remem- 
bered how  much  the  name  "  Screrefennae  "  has  been  corrupted, 
and  that  it  is  very  possible  that  other  names  may  have  been  so 
equally. 

1  And  or  Amd  was  used  formerly  not  only  for  the  island  of  And  (Ando), 
but  for  a  great  part  of  Vesteralen  and  Hinno. 

-  I  will  mention  as  yet  another  possibility  a  corruption  of  Ptolemy's  islands, 
the  "  Alociae,"  which  lay  at  the  extreme  north  of  his  map,  north  of  the  Cim- 
brian  Chersonese  and  farther  north  than  the  island  of  Scandia  (see  above,  pp. 
119,  f.).  A  Greek  capital  lambda,  A,  may  easily  be  mistaken  for  a  capital 
delta,  A,  especially  in  maps,  and  in  such  corrupted  form  may  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  Roman  maps,  and  thence  have  been  used  for  the  name  of  a  people 
who  were  said  to  live  specially  far  north.  Laffler  [1894,  p.  4]  thinks  that 
"adogit"  was  a  Lappish  people,  and  that  the  name  certainly  cannot  be  of 
Scandinavian-Germanic  origin,  but  he  does  not  say  why. 

132 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

The  statement  that  the  Adogit  had  forty  days'  daylight  in 
summer  and  a  corresponding  period  of  night  in  winter  is,  un- 
fortunately, of  no  assistance  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  given 
for  deciding  the  locality  inhabited  by  them,  for  no  such  phe- 
nomenon occurs  anywhere  on  the  earth.  If  we  suppose  that  the 
Adogit  people  themselves  observed  the  rising  and  setting  of  the 
sun  above  a  free  horizon,  then  we  must  believe  that  they  reck- 
oned the  unbroken  summer  day  from  the  first  to  the  last  night 
on  which  the  upper  limb  of  the  sun  did  not  disappear  below  the 
edge  of  the  sea.  And  they  would  have  reckoned  the  unbroken 
winter  night  from  the  first  day  on  which  the  sun's  upper  limb  did 
not  appear  above  the  horizon  at  noon,  until  the  first  day  wh^n  it 
again  became  visible. 

If  we  reckon  in  this  way,  and  take  into  account  the  hori- 
zontal refraction  and  the  fact  that  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic 
about  the  year  500  was  approximately  11'  greater  than  now, 
we  shall  find  that  at  that  time  the  midnight  sun  was  seen  for 
forty  days  (i.e.,  from  June  2  to  July  12)  in  about  66°  54'  N. 
lat.,  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kunna,  south  of  Bodd ;  but 
at  the  same  place  more  than  half  the  sun's  disc  would  be 
above  the  horizon  at  noon  at  the  winter  solstice;  it  was 
therefore  not  hidden  for  a  single  day,  much  less  for  forty  days. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  until  68°  51'  N.  lat.,  or  about 
Harsted  on  Hinno,  that  they  had  an  unbroken  winter  night, 
without  seeing  the  rim  of  the  sun,  for  forty  days  (from  December 
2  to  January  11);  but  there  they  had  the  midnight  sun  in 
summer  for  about  sixty-three  days.  The  fable  of  a  summer 
day  of  the  same  length  as  the  unbroken  winter  night 
cannot  therefore  have  originated  with  the  Northerners;  it 
must  have  been  evolved  in  an  entirely  theoretical  way  by 
astronomical  speculations  (in  ignorance  of  refraction),  which 
were  a  survival  of  Greek  science,  where  the  length  of  the 
northern  summer  day  was  always  assumed  to  be  equal  to  that 
of  the  winter  night.  But  that  information  had  been  received 
at  this  time  from  the  Northerners  is  probable,  since  the  state- 
ment of  a  forty  days'   summer  day  and  winter  night  is  not 

133 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


found  in  any  known  author  of  earlier  date,*  and  Jordanes' 
contemporary,  Procopius,  has  an  even  more  detailed  statement, 
especially  of  this  winter  night  (see  later).  The  probability  is 
that  what  the  Northerners  took  particular  notice  of  was  the 
long  night,  during  which,  as  Procopius  also  relates,  they  kept 
an  accurate  account  of  the  days  during  which  they  had  to 
do  without  the  light  of  the  sun,  a  time  in  which  "  they  were 

"  very  depressed,  since 
"  they  could  not  hold 
"  intercourse."  This 
must  also  have  been 
what  they  told  to  the 
southerners,  while 

they  did  not  pay  so 
much  attention  to  the 
length  of  the  summer 
day,  when  of  course 
they  would  in  any 
case  have  plenty  of 
sunlight.  We  must 
therefore  suppose  that 
the  latitude  worked 
out  according  to  the 
winter  night  of  forty 
days  is  the  correct 
one,  and  this  gives 
us  precisely  Sophus 
Bugge's  And — Andd,  or,  better  still,  Hinno. 

Jordanes  counts  about  twenty-seven  names  of  tribes  or 
peoples  in  Sweden  and  Norway;  a  number  of  them  are  easily 
recognized;  while  others  must  be  much  corrupted  and  are 
difficult  to  interpret.-     He  mentions  first  the  peoples  of  Sweden, 

1  Cleomedes  says  that  the  summer  day  in  Thule  lasted  a  month,  while  the 
astronomically  ignorant  Pliny  puts  it  at  six  months. 

-As  to  these  tribal  names  see  especially  Laffler  [1894,  1907],  and  Sophus 
Bugge  [1907],  besides  P.  A.  Munch  [1852],  Miillenhoff  [1887],  and  others. 


The  more  important  tribal  names  in  Southern 
Scandinavia,  according  to  Jordanes 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 

then      those      of      Norway.     "  Suehans "      is      certainly      the 
Svear. 

They,  "  like  the  Thuringians,  have  excellent  horses.  It  is  also  they  who 
through  their  commercial  intercourse  with  innumerable  other  peoples  send 
for  the  use  of  the  Romans  sappherine  skins  ('  sappherinas  pelles '),  which 
skins  are  celebrated  for  their  blackness.^  While  they  live  poorly  they  have 
the  richest  clothes." 

We  see  then  that  at  this  time  the  fur  trade  with  the  north 
was  well  developed,  as  the  amber  trade  was  at  a  much  earlier 
date.  Adam  of  Bremen  tells  us  of  the  "  proud  horses  "  of  the 
Svear  as  though  they  were  an  article  of  export  together  with 
furs.  In  the  Ynglinga  Saga  it  is  related  [cf.  Sophus  Bugge, 
1907,  p.  99]  that  Adils,  King  of  the  Svear  at  Upsalir, 

"  was  very  fond  of  good  horses,  he  had  the  best  horses  of  that  time."  He 
sent  a  stallion  "  to  Halogaland  to  Godgest  the  king;  Godgest  the  king  rode  it 
and  could  not  hold  it,  so  he  fell  off  and  got  his  death;  this  was  in  Omd  [Amd] 
in  Halogaland." 

The  original  authority  for  the  statement  in  Jordanes  was 
probably  King  Rodulf,  who  perhaps  came  from  the  northern 
half  of  Norway,  and  it  looks  as  though  the  Norwegians  even 
at  that  time  were  acquainted  with  Swedish  horses. 

Jordanes  further  mentions  five  tribes  who  "  dwell  in  a  flat, 
"fertile  land  [i.e.,  south  Sweden],  for  which  reason  also  they 
"  have  to  protect  themselves  against  the  attacks  of  other  tribes 
"('gentium')."  Among  the  tribes  in  Sweden  are  mentioned 
also  the  "  Finnaithae  " — doubtless  in  Finn-heden  or  Finn-veden 
(that  is,  either  Finn-heath  or  Finn-wood),  whose  name  must  be 
due  to  an  aboriginal  people  called  Finns — further,  the  "  Gauti- 
goth,"  generally  taken  for  the  West  Goter,  who  were  a  spe- 
cially "  brave  and  warlike  people,"  the  "  Ostrogothae "  [East 
Goter]  and  many  more. 

Then  he  crosses  the  Norwegian  frontier  and  mentions 

'The  origin  of  the  word  "sappherinas"  is  uncertain.  Lonborg  [1897,  p. 
26]  proposes  that  it  may  have  meant  deep  sapphire  blue,  and  have  been  used 
of  the  skins  of  blue  foxes.  Probably  it  is  rather  a  northern  word,  not  Ger- 
manic, but  either  Slavonic  or  Finnish   (?). 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

"  The  '  Raumarici '  [of  Romerike]  and  '  Ragnaricii '  (of  Ranrike  or  Bohus- 
lan),  the  very  mild  [peaceful]  'Finns'  (' Finni  mitissimi '),  who  are  milder 
than  all  the  other  inhabitants  of  Scandza; '  further  their  equals  the  '  Vinovi- 
loth';  the  '  Suetidi '  are  known  among  this  people  [' hac  gente  '  must  doubtless 
mean  the  Scandinavians]  as  towering  above  the  rest  in  bodily  height,  and  yet 
the  '  Danes,'  who  are  descended  from  this  very  race  [i.e.,  the  Scandinavians?] 
drove  out  the  '  Heruli '  from  their  own  home,  who  claimed  the  greatest  fame 
[i.e.,  of  being  the  foremost]  among  the  people  ['  nationes ']  of  Scandia  for  very 
great  bodily  size.  Yet  of  the  same  height  as  these  are  also  the  '  Granii '  [of 
Grenland,  the  coast-land  of  Bratsberg  and  Nedenes],  the  '  Augandzi '  [people 
of  Agder],2  'Eunix'  [islanders,  Holmryger  in  the  islands?],  'iEtelrugi'  [Ry- 
ger  on  the  mainland  in  Ryfylke],  'Arochi'  [^'arothi,'  i.e.,  Harudes,  Horder 
of  Hordaland],  '  Ranii '  [in  other  MSS.  '  Rannii '  or  '  Ramii,'  Sophus  Bugge 
(1907)  and  A.  Bugge  see  in  this  a  corruption  of  '  *Raumi,'  that  is,  people  of 
Romsdal],  over  whom  not  many  years  ago  Rodulf  was  king,  who,  despising 
his  own  kingdom,  hastened  to  the  arms  of  Theodoric,  king  of  the  Goths,  and 
found  what  he  had  hankered  after.  These  people  fight  with  the  savageness 
of  beasts,  more  mighty  than  the  Germans  in  body  and  soul." 

The  small  (?),  "very  mild"  Finns  must,  from  the  order 
in  which  they  are  named,  have  lived  in  the  forest  districts — 
Soldr,  Eidskogen,  and  perhaps  farther  south — on  the  Swedish 
border.  P.  A.  Munch  [1852,  p.  83]  saw  in  their  kinsmen  the 
"  Vinoviloth "  the  inhabitants  of  "  Vingulmark "  (properly 
"  vingel-skog,"  thick,  impenetrable  forest),  which  was  the  for- 
est country  on  Christiania  fjord  from  Glommen  to  Lier.  Miil- 
lenhoff  agrees  with  this  [ii.  1887,  p.  65  f.],  but  thinks  that 
"  -oth,"  the  last  part  of  the  word,  belongs  to  the  next  name, 
Suetidi,  and  that  "  Vinovil "  may  be  a  corruption  of  Vingvili  or 
Vinguli  (cf.  Paulus  Warnefridi's  "Vinili"?).  But  however 
this  may  be,  we  must  regard  this  people  and  the  foregoing  as 

^  MiillenhofF,  Mommsen,  Laffler,  and  others  think  that  the  "  mitiores " 
(milder)  of  the  MSS.  may  be  an  error  for  "  minores  "  (smaller),  which  gives 
better  sense,  in  contradistinction  to  the  "  Suetidi "  who  come  just  after  and 
were  taller  than  all  the  rest.  Sophus  Bugge  proposes  that  "  mitissimi "  and 
"  mitiores  "  may  be  errors  for  "  minutissime  "  and  "  minutiores,"  and  that  it 
should  therefore  be  translated  "  the  very  small  Finns  who  are  smaller  than 
all  the  other,  etc."  [cf.  also  A.  Bugge,  1906,  p.  18];  but  the  necessity  for  so 
great  a  change  is  doubtful  [cf.  LafHer,  1907,  p.  log]. 

=  8.  Bugge  thought  [1907,  p.  101]  at  one  time  that  these  might  be  people 
of  Gond  or  Gand,  i.e.,  Holland,  south  of  Stavanger,  but  afterwards  changed 
this  view  [cf.  1910,  p.  97]. 
136 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 

"  Finnish "    and    as    inhabiting   forest   districts,    as   hunters,    as 
well  as  a  third  Finnish  people,  "  Finnaithse  "  in  Smaland.     We 
shall   return   later   to   these    "  Finns "   in   Scandinavia.     It    has 
been   thought   that    "  Suetidi "    may   be   from    the    same    word 
as     "  Svi('jo6 " ;     but     as     Jordanes     has    already     mentioned 
the    Svear    ("Suehans"),    and    as    the    name    occurs    among 
the  Norwegian  tribes,  and  there  is  evidently  a  certain  order  in 
their  enumeration,   Miillenhoff  may  be  right  in  seeing  in  it  a 
corruption  of  a  Norwegian  tribal  name.     He  thinks  that  "  Oth- 
suetidi  "  may  be  a  corruption  of  "  .S^thsaevii,"  i.e.,  "  EiSsivar  " 
(cf.     Eidsivathing),     "  HeicSsaevir "     or     "  HeiSnir "     in     Hede- 
marken,    who    were    certainly    a  very  tall  people.     The   men- 
tion   of    the    Norwegian    warriors    has    a    certain    interest    in 
that  it   is   due   to   the   Roman   statesman   Cassiodorus    (or  his 
authority),   who   gloriiied   the   Goths  and   had   no   special   rea- 
son for  praising  the  Northmen.'     It  shows  that  even  at  that  time 
our  northern  ancestors  were  famed  for  courage  and  bodily  size, 
and  that  too  above  all  other  Germanic  peoples,  who  were  highly 
esteemed  by  the  Romans.     It  is  not  clear  whether  Rodulf  was 
King  of  the  "  Ranii  "  (Raumer?)  alone,  or  of  all  the  Norwegian 
tribes  from  Grenland  to  Romsdal.     It  may  be  supposed  that  he 
was  a  Norwegian  chief  who  migrated  south  through  Europe  at 
the  head  of  a  band  of  warriors,  composed  of  men  from  the  tribes 
mentioned,   and   that  finally   on   the   Danube,  hard  pressed  by 
other  warlike  people,  he  sought  alliance  and  support  from  the 
mighty  king  of  the  Goths,  Theodoric  or  Tjodrik   (Dietrich  of 
Berne).     This  may  have  been  just  before  489,  when  the  latter 
made  his  expedition  to  Italy.     Many  circumstances  combine  to 
make  such  a  hypothesis  probable.- 

We  know  that  about  489  the  Eruli  were  just  north  of 
the  Danube,  and  were  the  Goths'  nearest  neighbors.  Now, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  Eruli  was  perhaps  at  first  a  common 
name  for  bands  of  northern  warriors,  and  these  Eruli  on  the 

1  Jordanes,  -who  was  a  Goth,  had  even  less  reason  for  glorifying  the  North- 
men at  the  expense  of  the  Germans  or  Goths. 

2Cf.  Mommsen,  1882,  p.  154;  A.  Bugge,  1906,  pp.  21,  33  f. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Danube  may  therefore  certainly  have  consisted  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  of  Norwegians.  We  know,  further,  that  at  this 
time  there  was  a  king  of  the  Eruli  to  whom  Theodoric  sent 
as  a  gift  a  horse,  sword  and  shield,  thereby  making  him 
his  foster-son  [cf.  Cassiodorus,  Varia  iii.  3,  iv.  2].  Finally 
we  know  from  Procopius  that  the  Eruli  just  at  this  time 
had  a  king,  Rodulf,  who  fell  in  battle  against  the  Langobards 
(about  493).  When  we  compare  this  with  what  Jordanes  says 
about  the  Norwegian  king  Rodulf,  who  hastened  to  Theodoric's 
arms  and  found  there  what  he  sought,  it  will  be  easy  to  con- 
clude that  this  Norwegian  chief  is  the  same  as  the  chief  of 
Eruli  here  spoken  of.  Rodulf,  or  "  Hrodulfr,"  is  a  known 
Norwegian  name.  "  Rod-,"  or  "  Hrod,"  is  the  same  as  the 
"modem  Norwegian"  "  ros "  (i.e.,  praise),  and  means  prob- 
ably here  renowned. 

One  is  further  inclined  to  believe  that  it  was  from  this  Ro- 
dulf or  his  men,  of  whom  some  may  have  come  from  And  in 
Halogaland,  that  Cassiodorus  or  his  authority  obtained  the  in- 
formation about  Scandinavia  and  northern  Norway,  which  is  also 
partly  repeated  in  Procopius. 

Sophus  Bugge  [cf.  1910,  pp.  87  ff.,  see  also  A.  Bugge,  1906,  pp.  35  f.]  has  sug- 
gested that  the  "  Raf  uifr,"  who  is  mentioned  in  the  runic  inscription  on  the 
celebrated  Rok-stone  in  Ostergotland  (of  about  the  year  900),  in  which  Theod- 
oric ("  piaurikr ")  is  also  mentioned,  may  he  the  same  Norwegian  chief 
Rodulf,  who  came  to  Theodoric  and  who  fell  in  battle  with  the  Langobards. 
He  even  regards  it  as  possible  that  it  is  an  echo  of  this  battle  which  is  found 
in  the  inscription,  where  it  is  said  that  "twenty  kings  lie  slain  on  the  field"; 
in  that  case  the  battle  has  been  moved  north  from  the  Danube  to  "  Siulunt " 
(i.e.,  Sealand).  There  are  other  circumstances  which  agree  with  this:  it  is 
said  of  the  Eruli  that  they  had  peace  for  three  years  before  the  battle  [cf. 
Procopius] ;  on  the  Rok-stone  it  is  stated  that  the  twenty  kings  stayed  in 
Siulunt  four  winters;  the  latter  must  have  been  Norwegian  warriors  of  dif- 
ferent tribes:  Ryger,  Horder,  and  Heiner  (from  Hedemarken),  perhaps  under 
a  paramount  king  Rai^ulfr,  who  settled  in  Sealand — while  the  Eruli  were  bands 
of  northern  warriors,  who  under  a  king  Rodulf  had  established  themselves  on 
the  north  bank  of  the  Danube.  Bugge's  supposition  may  be  uncertain,  but  if 
it  be  correct  it  greatly  strengthens  the  view  (see  p.  145)  that  the  Eruli  were 
largely  Norwegian  warriors,  since  in  that  case  the  king  of  the  Eruli,  Rodulf 
(  =  RaJulfr),  would  have  been  in  command  of  tribes  for  the  most  part  Nor- 
wegian: Ryger,  Horder,  and  Heiner. 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

The  Byzantine  historian  Procopius,  of  Caesarea  (ob. 
after  562),  became  in  527  legal  assistant,  "assessor,"  to  the 
general  Belisarius,  and  accompanied  him  on  his  campaigns 
until  549,  amongst  others  that  against  the  Goths  in  Italy. 
In  his  work  (in  Greek)  on  the  war  against  the  Goths  ("  De 
bello  Gothico,"  t.  ii.  c.  14  and  15),  written  about  552,  he  gives 
information  about  the  North  which  is  of  great  interest. 
He  tells  us  of  the  warlike  Germanic  people,  the  Eruli,  who 
from  old  time  '  were  said  to  have  lived  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  Danube,  and  who,  with  no  better  reason  than  that 
they  had  lived  in  peace  for  three  whole  years  and  were  tired 
of  it,  attacked  their  neighbors  the  Langobards,  but  suffered 
a  decisive  defeat,  and  their  king,  Rodulf,  fell  in  the  battle 
(about  493).^ 

"  They  then  hastily  left  their  dwelling-places,  and  set  out  with  their  women 
and  children  to  wander  through  the  whole  country  [Hungary]  which  lies  north 
of  the  Danube.  When  they  came  to  the  district  where  the  Rogians  had  for- 
merly dwelt,  who  had  joined  the  army  of  the  Goths  and  gone  into  Italy,  they 
settled  there;  but  as  they  were  oppressed  by  famine  in  that  district,  which  had 
been  laid  waste,  they  soon  afterwards  departed  from  it,  and  came  near  to  the 
country  of  the  Gepidae  [Transylvania].  The  Gepidae  allowed  them  to  estab- 
lish themselves  and  to  become  their  neighbors,  but  began  thereupon,  without 
the  slightest  cause,  to  commit  the  most  revolting  acts  against  them,  ravishing 
their  women,  robbing  them  of  cattle  and  other  goods,  and  omitting  no  kind  of 
injustice,  and  finally  began  an  unjust  war  against  them."  The  Eruli  then 
crossed  the  Danube  to  Illyria  and  settled  somewhere  about  what  is  now  Ser- 
via  under  the  Eastern  emperor  Anastasius  (491-518).  Some  of  the  Eruli  would 
not  "  cross  the  Danube,  but  decided  to  establish  themselves  in  the  uttermost 
ends  of  the  inhabited  world.  Many  chieftains  of  royal  blood  now  undertaking 
their  leadership,  they  passed  through  all  the  tribes  of  the  Slavs  one  after  an- 
other, went  thence  through  a  wide,  uninhabited  country,  and  came  to  the  so- 
called  Varn.  Beyond  them  they  passed  by  the  tribes  of  the  Danes  [in  Jut- 
land],  without    the    barbarians    there    using    violence    towards    them.     When 

1  This  is  certainly  incorrect;  probably  they  came  from  the  north  and  estab- 
lished themselves  near  the  Danube  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Langobards. 

*  Paulus  Warnefridi  gives  a  mythical  account  of  the  cause  of  the  war  and 
of  the  battle  and  death  of  king  Rodulf  [Bethmann  and  Waitz,  1878,  pp.  57  ff.] ; 
the  fight  and  king  Rodulf  are  also  referred  to  in  the  "  Origo  Gentes  Lango- 
bardorum  "  (of  about  807).  In  both  these  works  it  is  stated  that  it  was  the 
Langobards  (and  not  the  Eruli)  who  had  lived  in  this  country  (by  the 
Danube?)  in  peace  for  three  years. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

they  thence  came  to  the  ocean  [about  the  year  512]  they  took  ship,  and 
landed  on  the  island  of  Thule  [i.e.,  Scandinavia]  and  remained  there.  But 
Thule  is  beyond  comparison  the  largest  of  all  islands;  for  it  is  more  than 
ten  times  as  large  as  Britain.  But  it  lies  very  far  therefrom  northwards. 
On  this  island  the  land  is  for  the  most  part  uninhabited.  But  in  the  inhab- 
ited regions  there  are  thirteen  populous  tribes,  each  with  a  king.  Every  year 
an  extraordin'iry  thing  takes  place;  for  the  sun,  about  the  time  of  the  sum- 
mer solstice,  does  not  set  at  all  for  forty  days,  but  for  the  whole  of  this  time 
remains  uninterruptedly  visible  above  the  earth.  No  less  than  six  months 
later,  about  the  winter  solstice,  for  forty  days  the  sun  is  nowhere  to  be  seen 
on  this  island;  but  continual  night  is  spread  over  it,  and  therefore  for  the 
whole  of  that  time  the  people  are  very  depressed,  since  they  can  hold  no  in- 
tercourse. It  is  true  that  I  have  not  succeeded,  much  as  I  should  have 
wished  it,  in  reaching  this  island  and  witnessing  what  is  here  spoken  of;  but 
from  those  who  have  come  thence  to  us  I  have  collected  information  of  how 
they  are  able  [to  count  the  days]  when  the  sun  neither  rises  nor  sets  at  the 
times  referred  to,"  etc.  When,  during  the  forty  days  that  it  is  above  the 
horizon,  the  sun  in  its  daily  course  returns  "  to  that  place  where  the  inhabi- 
tants first  saw  it  rise,  then  according  to  their  reckoning  a  day  and  a  night 
have  passed.  But  when  the  period  of  night  commences,  they  find  a  measure 
by  observation  of  the  moon's  path,  according  to  which  they  reckon  the  num- 
ber of  days.  But  when  thirty-five  days  of  the  long  night  are  passed,  certain 
people  are  sent  up  to  the  tops  of  mountains,  as  is  the  custom  with  them,  and 
when  from  thence  they  can  see  some  appearance  of  the  sun,  they  send  word 
to  the  inhabitants  below  that  in  five  days  the  sun  will  shine  upon  them.  And 
the  latter  assemble  and  celebrate,  in  the  dark  it  is  true,  the  feast  of  the  glad 
tidings.  Among  the  people  of  Thule  this  is  the  greatest  of  all  their  festivals. 
I  believe  that  these  islanders,  although  the  same  thing  happens  every  year 
with  them,  nevertheless  are  in  a  state  of  fear  lest  some  time  the  sun  should 
be  wholly  lost  to  them. 

"  Among  the  barbarians  inhabiting  Thule,  one  people,  who  are  called  Skrid- 
finns  [Scrithifini],  lives  after  the  manner  of  beasts.  They  do  not  wear  clothes 
[i.e.,  of  cloth]  nor,  when  they  walk,  do  they  fasten  anything  under  their  feet, 
[i.e.,  they  do  not  wear  shoes],  they  neither  drink  wine  nor  eat  anything  from 
the  land,  because  they  neither  cultivate  the  land  themselves,  nor  do  the  wo- 
men provide  them  with  anything  from  tilling  it,  but  the  men  as  well  as  the 
women  occupy  themselves  solely  and  continually  in  bunting;  for  the  extraor- 
dinarily great  forests  and  mountains  which  rise  in  their  country  give  them 
vast  quantities  of  game  and  other  beasts.  They  always  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
animals  they  hunt  and  wear  their  skins,  and  they  have  no  linen  or  anything 
else  that  they  can  sew  with.  But  they  fasten  the  skins  together  with  the 
sinews  of  beasts,  and  thus  cover  their  whole  bodies.  The  children  even  are 
not  brought  up  among  them  as  with  other  peoples;  for  the  Skridfinns'  chil- 
dren do  not  take  women's  milk,  nor  do  they  touch  their  mother's  breasts,  but 
they  are  nourished  solely  with  the  marrow  of  slain  beasts.  As  soon  there- 
fore as  a  woman  has  given  birth,  she  winds  the  child  in  a  skin,  hangs  it  up 
140 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

in  a  tree,  puts  marrow  into  its  mouth,  and  goes  off  hunting;  for  they  follow 
this  occupation  in  common  with  the  men.  Thus  is  the  mode  of  life  of  these 
barbarians  arranged. 

"  Nearly  all  of  the  remaining  inhabitants  of  Thule  do  not,  however,  differ 
much  from  other  peoples.  They  worship  a  number  of  gods  and  higher  pow- 
ers in  the  heavens,  the  air,  the  earth  and  the  sea,  also  certain  other  higher 
beings  which  are  thought  to  dwell  in  the  waters  of  springs  and  rivers.  But 
they  always  slay  all  kinds  of  sacrifice  and  offer  dead  sacrifices.  And  to  them 
the  best  of  all  sacrifices  is  the  man  they  have  taken  prisoner  by  their  arms. 
Him  they  sacrifice  to  the  god  of  war,  because  they  consider  him  to  be  the 
greatest.  But  they  do  not  sacrifice  him  merely  by  using  fire  at  the  sacrifice; 
they  also  hang  him  up  in  a  tree,  or  throw  him  among  thorns,  and  slay  him 
by  other  cruel  modes  of  death.  Such  is  the  life  of  the  inhabitants  of  Thule, 
among  whom  the  most  numerous  people  are  the  Gauti  (Goter),  with  whom 
the  immigrant  Eruli  settled." 

This  description  by  Procopius  of  Thule  (Scandinavia)  and 
its  people  bears  the  stamp  of  a  certain  trustworthiness.  If  we 
ask  whence  he  has  derived  his  information,  our  thoughts  are 
led  at  once  to  the  Eruli,  referred  to  by  him  in  such  detail,  who 
in  part  were  still  the  allies  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  of  whom 
the  emperor  at  Byzantium  had  a  bodyguard  in  the  sixth  century. 
There  were  many  of  them  in  the  army  of  the  Eastern  Empire 
both  in  Persia  and  in  Italy;  thus  Procopius  says  that  there 
were  two  thousand  of  them  in  the  army  under  the  eunuch 
Narses,  which  came  to  Italy  to  join  Belisarius.  Procopius  thus 
had  ample  opportunity  for  obtaining  first-hand  information 
from  these  northern  warriors,  and  his  account  of  them  shows 
that  the  Eruli  south  of  the  Danube  kept  up  communication 
with  their  kinsmen  in  Scandinavia,  for  when  they  had  killed 
their  king  "  Ochon "  without  cause,  since  they  wished  to  try 
being  without  a  king,  and  had  repented  the  experiment,  they 
sent  some  of  their  foremost  men  to  Thule  to  find  a  new  king 
of  the  royal  blood.  They  chose  one  and  returned  with  him; 
but  he  died  on  the  way  when  they  had  almost  reached  home, 
and  they  therefore  turned  again  and  went  once  more  to  Thule. 
This  time  they  found  another,  "  by  name  '  Datios '  [or  '  Toda- 
"  sios  =  Tjodrik?].  He  was  accompanied  by  his  brother  '  Aor- 
"dos'  [=  Vard?]  and  two  hundred  young  men  of  the  Eruli  in 
"  Thule."     Meanwhile,  as  they  were  so  long  absent,  the  Eruli  of 

141 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Singidunum  (the  modem  Belgrade)  had  sent  an  embassy  to  the 
Emperor  Justinianus  at  Byzantium  asking  him  to  give  them  a 
chief.  He  sent,  therefore,  the  Erulian  "  Svartuas  "  (=  Svart- 
ugle,  i.e.,  black  owl?),  who  had  been  living  with  him  for  a  long 
time.  But  when  Datios  from  Thule  approached,  all  the  Eruli 
went  over  to  him  by  night,  and  Svartuas  had  to  flee  quite  alone, 
and  returned  to  Byzantium.  The  emperor  now  exerted  all  his 
power  to  reinstate  him ;  "  but  the  Eruli,  who  feared  the  power 
"  of  the  Romans,  decided  to  migrate  to  the  Gepidae."  This  hap- 
pened in  Procopius's  own  time,  and  may  therefore  be  regarded 
as  trustworthy;  it  shows  how  easy  communication  must  have 
been  at  that  time  between  Scandinavia  and  the  south,  and  also 
with  Byzantium,  so  that  Procopius  may  well  have  had  his 
information  by  that  channel.  But  he  may  also  have  received 
information  from  another  quarter.  His  description  of  Thule 
shows  such  decided  similarities  with  Jordanes'  account  of 
Scandza  and  its  people  that  they  point  to  some  common  source 
of  knowledge,  even  though  there  are  also  dissimilarities.  Among 
the  latter  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Jordanes  makes  a  distinc- 
tion between  Thule  (north  of  Britain)  and  Scandza,  while 
Procopius  calls  Scandinavia  Thule,  which,  however,  like 
Jordanes,  he  places  to  the  north  of  Britain,  and  he  does  not 
mention  Scandia.  It  may  seem  surprising  that  Jordanes' 
authority,  Cassiodorus  (or  Ablabius?),  should  have  known 
Ptolemy  better  than  the  Greek  Procopius.  The  explanation 
may  be  that  when  Procopius  heard  from  the  statements  of 
the  Eruli  themselves  that  some  of  them  had  crossed  the 
ocean  from  the  land  of  the  Danes  (Jutland)  to  a  great  island 
in  the  north,  he  could  not  have  supposed  that  this  was  Scandia, 
which  on  Ptolemy's  map  lay  east  of  the  Cimbrian  peninsula 
and  farther  south  than  its  northern  point;  it  would  seem 
much  more  probable  that  it  was  Thule,  which,  however,  as 
he  saw,  must  lie  farther  from  Britain  and  be  larger  than  it 
was  shown  on  Ptolemy's  map;  for  which  reason  Procopius  ex- 
pressly asserts  that  Thule  was  much  larger  than  Britain  and 
lay  far  to  the  north  of  it.  As  it  was  not  Procopius's  habit  to 
142 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 

make  a  show  of  unnecessary  names,  he  keeps  the  well-known 
name  of  Thule  and  does  not  even  mention  Scandia.  It  may 
even  be  supposed  that  it  was  to  west  Norway  itself,  or  the 
ancient  Thule,  that  the  Eruli  sailed.  If  their  king  Rodulf 
was  a  Norwegian,  as  suggested  above,  this  would  be  probable, 
as  in  that  case  many  of  themselves  would  have  come  from 
there  too;  besides  which,  we  know  of  a  people,  the  Harudes 
or  Horder,  who  had  formerly  migrated  by  sea  from  Jutland 
to  the  west  coast  of  Norway;  there  had  therefore  been  an 
ancient  connection,  and  perhaps,  indeed,  Horder  from  Norway 
and  Harudes  from  Jutland  may  have  been  among  Rodulf's 
men,  and  there  may  also  have  been  Harudes  among  the  Eruli 
whom  the  Danes,  according  to  Jordanes,  drove  out  of  their 
home  (in  Jutland?).  There  was  also,  from  the  very  beginning 
of  Norwegian  history,  much  connection  between  Norway  and 
Jutland. 

Another  disagreement  between  the  descriptions  of  Proco- 
pius  and  Jordanes  is  that  according  to  the  former  there  were 
thirteen  tribes,  each  with  a  king,  in  Thule,  while  Jordanes  enu- 
merates twice  as  many  tribal  names  in  Scandza,  but  of  these 
perhaps  several  may  have  belonged  to  the  same  kingdom.^ 

A    remarkable   similarity   between   the   two   authors   is   the 

summer  day  forty  days  long  and  the  equally  long  winter  night 

among  the  people  of  Thule  as  with  the  Adogit,   and  the  fact 

that    in    immediate    connection    therewith    the    Scrithifini    and 

Screrefennas,    which    must    originally   be    the    same    name,    are 

mentioned.     The   description   in   Procopius   of  festivals   on   the 

reappearance   of  the   sun,  etc.,  points  certainly  to   information 

from  the   North;   but,   as   already   pointed    out,   the   statement 

in  this  form,  that  the  summer  day  was  of  the  same  length  as 

the  winter  night,  cannot  be  due  to  the  Norsemen  themselves; 

it  is  a  literary  invention,   which  points  to   a  common   literary 

1  It  is  probable  that  the  mention  of  the  tribes  in  Jordanes  is  taken  from 
two  different  sources;  for  he  begins  by  saying  that  Ptolemy  only  has  the 
names  of  seven,  without  mentioning  any  of  these,  and  later  on  he  gives  a 
whole  series  of  others,  which  may  have  been  added  from  another  author  who 
supplemented  the  one  from  whom  the  mention  of  Ptolemy  is  taken. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

origin;  for  it  would  be  more  than  remarkable  if  it  had  arisen 
independently  both  with  the  authority  of  Procopius  and  with 
that  of  Jordanes.  An  even  more  striking  indication  in  the 
same  direction  is  the  resemblance  which  we  find  in  the  order 
of  the  two  descriptions  of  Thule  and  of  Scandza.  First  comes 
the  geographical  description  of  the  island,  which  in  both  is 
of  very  great  size  and  lies  far  out  in  the  northern  ocean;  then 
occurs  the  statement  that  in  this  great  island  are  many  tribes.  ^ 
Next  we  have  in  both  the  curious  fact  that  the  summer  day 
and  the  winter  night  both  last  for  forty  days.  Then  follows 
in  both  a  more  detailed  statement  of  how  the  long  summer 
day  and  winter  night  come  about,  and  of  how  the  sun  behaves 
during  its  course,  etc.  Immediately  after  this  comes  the 
description  of  the  Skridfinns,  who  have  a  bestial  way  of  life, 
and  do  not  live  on  com  but  on  the  flesh  of  wild  beasts,  etc., 
with  an  addition  in  Jordanes  about  fen-fowls'  eggs  (perhaps 
taken  from  Mela),  while  Procopius  has  a  more  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  their  mode  of  life,  which  reminds  one  somewhat  of 
Tacitus.  Finally,  there  is  a  reference  to  the  Germanic  people 
of  Thule  or  Scandza;  but  while  Procopius  mentions  their  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  human  sacrifices,  and  only  gives  the  name  of 
the  most  numerous  tribe,  the  Gauti,  Jordanes  has  for  the  most 
part  a  rigmarole  of  names. 

Even  if  the  method  of  treating  the  material  is  thus  very 
different  in  the  two  works,  the  order  in  which  the  material  is 
arranged,  and  to  some  extent  also  the  material  itself,  are  in  such 
complete  agreement  that  there  must  be  a  historical  connection, 
and  undoubtedly  a  common  literary  source,  through  a  greater 
or  less  number  of  intermediaries,  is  the  basis  of  both  descrip- 
tions. One  might  think  of  the  unknown  Ablabius,  or  perhaps 
of  the  unknown  Gothic  scholar  Aithanarit,  whom  the  Ravenna 
geographer  mentions  in  connection  with  his  reference  to  the 
Skridfinns,  if  indeed  he  did  not  live  later  than  Procopius.     It 

1  Jordanes  here  repeats  Ptolemy,  from  whom  the  name  of  Scandza,  =  Scan- 
dia,  is  taken  (and  the  statement  as  to  the  shape  of  the  island?),  while  Pro- 
copius has  nothing  about  it. 

144 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 

is  striking  also  that  the  passage  about  Thule  in  Procopius  gives 
rather  the  impression  of  having  been  inserted  in  the  middle  of 
his  narrative  about  the  Eruli,  without  any  very  intimate  con- 
nection therewith,  and  it  may  therefore  be  for  the  most  part 
taken  from  an  earlier  author,  perhaps  with  alterations  and  addi- 
tions by  Procopius  himself;  but  it  is  not  his  habit  to  inform  us 
of  his  authorities. 

Procopius's  description  of  the  Eruli  is  of  great  interest. 
It  is  a  remarkable  feature  in  the  history  of  the  world  that  at 
certain  intervals,  even  from  the  earliest  times,  roving  warrior 
peoples  appear  in  Europe,  coming  from  the  unknown  North, 
who  for  a  time  fill  the  world  with  dread,  and  then  disappear 
again.  One  of  these  northern  peoples  was  perhaps,  as  already 
mentioned,  the  "  Cimmerians,"  who  in  the  eighth  century 
B.C.  made  an  inroad  into  Asia  Minor.  Six  hundred  years  later, 
in  the  second  century  B.C.,  bands  of  Cimbri  and  Teutones 
came  down  from  northern  Europe  and  were  pressing  towards 
Rome,  till  they  were  defeated  by  Marius  and  gradually  dis- 
appeared. Five  hundred  years  later  still,  in  the  third  to 
the  fifth  centuries  A.D.,  the  Eruli  come  on  the  scene,  and 
after  they  have  disappeared  come  the  Saxons  and  Danes, 
and  then  the  Normans.  We  may  perhaps  suppose,  to  a 
certain  extent  at  all  events,  that  the  races  which  formed  these 
restless  and  adventurous  bands  were  in  part  the  same,  and 
that  it  is  the  names  that  have  changed.  The  Eruli  are  also 
mentioned  by  Jordanes  and  by  many  other  authorities  besides 
Procopius.  Together  with  the  Goths  they  played  a  part  in  the 
"  Scythian  "  war  in  the  third  century,  but  afterwards  disappear 
to  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea.  They  must  have  been  the  most 
migratory  people  of  their  time;  we  find  them  roaming  over 
the  whole  of  Europe,  from  Scandinavia  on  the  north  to  Byzan- 
tium on  the  south,  from  the  Black  Sea  on  the  east  to  Spain  on 
the  west;  from  the  third  to  the  fifth  century  we  find  Eruli 
from  Scandinavia  as  pirates  on  the  coasts  of  western  Europe, 
and  even  in  the  Mediterranean  itself,  where  in  455  they  reached 
Lucca  in  Italy   [cf.  Zeuss,    1837,  P-  477»   ^'>   Miillenhoff,    1889, 

145 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

p.  19].  When  we  read  in  Procopius  that  some  of  the  Eruli 
would  not  "  cross  the  Danube,  but  determined  to  establish 
themselves  in  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  world,"  this  means, 
of  course,  that  they  had  come  from  thence,  and  that  rather 
than  be  subject  to  the  Eastern  Empire  they  would  return  home 
to  Scandinavia.  The  name  also  frequently  appears  in  its 
primitive  Norse  form,  "erilaR,"  in  Northern  runic  inscrip- 
tions.^ Since  "  erilaR  "  (in  Norwegian  "  jarl,"  in  English 
"  earl ")  means  leader  in  war,  and  is  not  known  in  Scandi- 
navia as  the  original  name  of  a  tribe  which  has  given  its  name 
to  any  district  in  the  North,  we  must  suppose  that  it  was  more 
probably  an  appellative  in  use  in  the  more  southern  parts 
of  Europe  for  bands  of  northern  warriors  of  one  or  more 
Scandinavian  tribes  [cf.  P.  A.  Munch,  1852,  p,  53],  They 
may  have  called  themselves  so;  it  was,  in  fact,  characteristic 
of  the  Scandinavian  warrior  that  he  was  not  disposed  to  ac- 
knowledge any  superior;  they  were  all  free  men  and  chiefs 
in  contradistinction  to  thralls.  Gradually  these  bands  in 
foreign  countries  may  have  coalesced  into  one  nation  [cf.  A. 
Bugge,  1906,  p.  32].  But  as  expeditions  of  Eruli  are  spoken 
of  in  such  widely  different  parts  of  Europe,  the  name  must, 
up  to  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  have  often  been  used  for 
Norsemen  in  general,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  nations 
of  Germany,  like  the  designation  Normans,  and  sometimes 
also  Danes,  in  later  times.  That  the  latter  was  used  as  an  appel- 
lative as  early  as  the  time  of  Procopius  seems  to  result  from  his 
mentioning  the  tribes  ("  ethne ")  of  the  Danes  in  just  the 
same  way  as  he  speaks  of  those  of  the  Slavs.  What  is  said 
about  the   Eruli   suits  the  Scandinavians:   they  were  very  tall 

1  The  name  appears  in  the  runic  inscriptions  to  be  often  a  designation  of 
the  author  of  the  inscription.  Sophus  Bugge  thought  that  the  Eruli  had  ob- 
tained their  knowledge  of  runes  from  the  Goths,  and  that  they  kept  them  a 
secret  (this  reappears  in  the  word  "  run  "  itself,  which  means  secret)  especially 
in  the  leading  families,  who  turned  them  to  account.  During  their  centuries 
of  roving  life  they  carried  the  knowledge  of  runes  with  them  to  various  parts 
of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway.  In  this  way  the  uniformity  of  language 
in  the  inscriptions  from  widely  separated  places  may  also  be  explained. 
146 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

(cf.  Jordanes,  above,  p.  136)  and  fair,  were  specially  famed 
for  their  activity,  and  were  lightly  armed;  they  went  into 
battle  without  helmet  or  coat  of  mail,  protected  only  by  a 
shield  and  a  thick  tunic,  which  they  tucked  up  into  a  belt. 
Their  thralls,  indeed,  had  to  fight  without  shields;  but  when 
they  had  shown  their  courage  they  were  allowed  to  carry 
a  shield  [Procopius,  De  bello  Pers.,  ii.  25].  "At  that  time," 
says  Jordanes,  "  there  was  no  nation  that  had  not  chosen 
the  light-armed  men  of  its  army  from  among  them.  But  if 
their  activity  had  often  helped  them  in  other  wars,  they  were 
vanquished  by  the  slow  steadiness  of  the  Goths,"  and  they 
had  to  submit  to  Hermanaric,  King  of  the  Goths  by  the  Black 
Sea,  the  same  who  is  called  Jormunrek  in  the  Volsunga  Saga. 
The  people  here  described  can  scarcely  have  been  typical 
dwellers  in  plains,  who  are  usually  slow  and  heavy;  we 
should  rather  think  of  them  as  tough  and  active  Scandinavian 
mountaineers,  who  by  their  hard  life  in  the  hills  had  become 
light  of  foot  and  practised  in  the  use  of  their  limbs;  but 
who,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  ill  supplied  with  heavier 
weapons  and  had  had  scant  opportunities  of  exercise  as  heavy- 
armed  men,  for  which  indeed  they  had  no  taste.  This  also 
explains  their  remarkable  mobility.  We  are  thus  led  once 
more  to  think  of  Norway  as  the  possible  home  of  some  of 
the  Eruli.  To  sum  up,  we  find  then  that  they  had  a  king 
with  the  Norse  name  Rodulf,  and  there  are  many  indications 
that  he  was  the  same  as  the  Norwegian  king  Rodulf  (from 
Romsdal?),  who  came  to  Theodoric.  They  returned  through 
Jutland  and  sailed  thence  to  Thule,  where  they  settled  by  the 
side  of  the  Gauti,  i.e.,  to  the  west  of  them  in  Norway,  which 
from  old  time  had  had  frequent  communication  with  Jutland, 
from  whence  the  Horder  (and  probably  also  the  Ryger?)  had 
immigrated.  They  are  described  as  having  characteristics 
which  are  typical  of  mountaineers,  but  not  of  lowlanders. 
An  Erulian  name,  "  Aruth "  {'Apoud^^  mentioned  by  Procopius 
[De  bello  Goth.,  iv.  26],  also  points  to  Norway,  since  it 
appears  to  be  the  same  as  the  Norwegian  tribal  name  "  Horder  " 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

("*Haru6r,"  gen.  "  Haruf's,"  on  the  Rok-stone   [cf.  S.  Bugge 
1910,  p.  98],  or  "  Arothi  "  in  Jordanes). 

Other  Erulian  names  in  Procopius  may  be  common  to  the  northern  Ger- 
manic languages.  In  the  opinion  of  Professor  Alf  Torp  it  is  probable  that 
"  Visandos "  is  bison,  "  Aluith  "  is  Alvid  or  Alvith  (all-knowing) ;  in  "  Fan- 
itheos"  the  first  syllable  may  be  "fan"  or  "fen"  (English,  fen)  and  the 
second  part  "-theos"  may  be  the  Scandinavian  termination  "-ther"; 
"  Aordos "  may  be  Vard.  The  King's  name  "  Ochon "  seems  to  resemble 
the  Norwegian  Hakon;  but  the  latter  name  cannot  have  had  such  a  form  at 
that  time,  it  must  have  been  longer. 

What  Procopius  tells  us  [De  bello  Goth.,  ii.  14]  about  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Eruli  agrees  with  what  we 
know  of  the  Norsemen  generally.  They  worshipped  many 
gods,  whom  they  considered  it  their  sacred  duty  to  propitiate 
with  human  sacrifices.  Aged  and  sick  persons  were  obliged 
to  ask  their  relatives  to  help  them  to  get  rid  of  life ; '  they 
were  killed  with  a  dagger  by  one  who  did  not  belong  to  the 
family,  and  were  burnt  on  a  great  pile,  after  which  the  bones 
were  collected  and  buried,  as  was  the  custom  in  western 
Norway  amongst  other  places.  "  When  an  Erulian  died,  his 
wife,  if  she  wished  to  show  her  virtue  and  leave  a  good  name 
behind  her,  had  to  hang  herself  not  long  after  with  a  rope  by 
her  husband's  grave  and  thus  make  an  end  of  herself.  If 
she  did  not  do  this,  she  lost  respect  for  the  future,  and  was 
an  offence  to  her  husband's  family.  This  custom  was  observed 
by  the  Eruli  from  old  time."  Their  many  gods  and  human 
sacrifices  agree,  as  we  see,  with  Procopius's  description  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Thule,  and  with  what  we  know  of  the 
Scandinavians  from  other  quarters.  As  human  sacrifices  with 
most   people    were    connected   with   banquets,    at    which   slain 

1  It  appears  to  have  been  a  general  custom  among  the  Germans  to  put  old 
people  to  death  (cf.  p.  i8).  Herodotus  [i.  216]  relates  of  the  Massagetae,  who 
may  have  been  a  Germanic  tribe,  that  "  when  any  one  has  grown  very  old 
all  his  relatives  come  together  and  slaughter  him,  and  with  him  other  small 
cattle;  they  then  cook  the  flesh  and  hold  a  banquet.  This  is  considered  by 
them  the  happiest  end.  But  they  do  not  eat  one  who  dies  of  sickness,  but 
bury  him  underground,  and  lament  that  he  did  not  live  to  be  slaughtered." 
,148 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

enemies  were  eaten,'  the  assertion  that  our  Germanic  ancestors 
did  not  practise  cannibalism  rests  upon  uncertain  ground. 
When,  therefore,  in  finds  of  the  Stone  Age  in  Denmark,  Sweden, 
and  Norway  broken  or  scraped  human  bones  occur,  which 
point  to  cannibalism,  it  cannot  be  argued  from  this,  as  is  done 
by  Dr.  A.  M.  Hansen  [1907],  that  the  finds  belong  to  a  non- 
Germanic  people. 

For  the  rest,  Procopius  paints  the  Eruli  in  crude  colors ;  they 
are  covetous,  domineering,  and  violent  towards  their  fellow 
men,  without  being  ashamed  of  it.  They  are  addicted  to  the 
grossest  debauchery,  are  the  most  wicked  of  men,  and  utterly 
depraved. 

The  "  Scrithifini "  of  Procopius  (and  Jordanes'  corrupted 
form,  "  Screrefennse "  or  "  Scretefennae ")  are  undoubtedly 
a  people  of  the  same  kind  as  Tacitus's  "  Fenni "  (Ptolemy- 
Marinus's  "  Finni ") ;  but  they  have  here  acquired  the 
descriptive  prefix  "  scrithi-,"  which  is  generally  understood  as 
the  Norse  "  skriSa "  (  =  to  slide,  e.g.,  on  the  ice,  to  glide ; 
cf.  Swedish  "  skridsko,"  skate).  The  Norsemen  must  have 
characterized  their  Finnish  (i.e.,  Lappish)  neighbors  on  the 
north  as  sliding  (walking)  on  ski  ("  skriSa  a  skiSum"),  to 
distinguish  them  from  other  peoples  in  the  outlying  districts, 
whom  they  also  called  Finns.  If  this  is  so,  it  is  the  first  time 
that  a  reference  to  ski  running  is  found  in  literature.  There 
is,  moreover,  considerable  similarity  between  Procopius's 
description  of  these  hunters  and  Tacitus's  account  of  the 
"  Fenni,"  who  must  certainly  also  have  lived  in  Scandinavia 
(see  above,  p.  113),  and  who  may  have  been  the  same  people. 
They  have  many  peculiar  characteristics  in  common,  e.g., 
that  both  men  and  women  go  hunting;  and  the  statement 
that  while  the  mothers  go  hunting,  the  children,  in  Tacitus, 
are  hidden  in  a   shelter  of  boughs    (i.e.,  a  tent),  and  in  Proco- 

1  This  widespread  form  of  anthropophagy  is  due  to  the  superstition  that  by 
eating  something  of  another,  beast  or  man,  or  particular  parts,  e.g.,  the  heart 
(cf.  Sigurd  Favnesbane),  one  acquired  the  peculiar  properties  of  the  other, 
such  as  strength,  courage,  goodness,  etc.  It  is  thus  a  similar  idea  to  that  in 
the  Christian  sacrament. 

149 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

plus  are  hung  up  in  a  tree  (perhaps  the  Lapps'  "komse," 
i.e.,  a  cradle  made  of  wood  to  hang  up  in  the  tent). 
Procopius  himself  probably  did  not  know  Tacitus's  "  Ger- 
mania,"  but  it  is  possible  that  his  unknown  authority  did 
so,  although  this  work  was  generally  forgotten  at  that  time. 
But  even  if  the  description  of 
Procopius  may  thus  be  partly 
derived  from  Tacitus,  in  any 
case  fresh  information  has  been 
added,  the  name  Skridfinns  it- 
self   to    begin    with,    and    certain 


Map  of  the  world  in  the  MS. 

of    Isidore,   tenth   century, 

St.   Gallen   [K.   Miller] 


The  oldest  known  map  of  the 

world,    from    the    MS.    of 

Isidore  of  the  end  of  the 

seventh     century,     St. 

Gallen   [K.   Miller] 


correct  details,  such  as  their  fastening  the  skins  together 
with  the  sinews  of  beasts.  The  fable  that  the  children  did  not 
touch  their  mothers'  breasts  may  (like  the  masculine  occupation 
of  the  women)  be  due  to  legends  about  the  Amazons,  who  were 
not  brought  up  on  their  mothers'  milk.  That  the  children  were 
given  marrow  instead  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  this  people  of 
hunters,  like  the  Lapps  of  the  present  day,  ate  much  animal 
fat  and  marrow.  The  Eskimo  often  give  their  children  raw  blub- 
ber to  chew. 

Thus  while  valuable  information  about  the  North  is  to  be 
150 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

found  in  the  early  mediaeval  authors  we  have  mentioned,  this 
is  not  the  case  with  the  well-known  Isidorus  Hispalensis  of 
Seville  (ob.  636,  as  bishop  of  that  city),  who,  however,  exer- 
cised the  greatest  influence  on  the  geographical  ideas  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  His  geographical  knowledge  was  derived  from 
late  Latin  authors,  especially  Orosius,  Hieronymus  and  Solinus, 
and  contributed  nothing  new  of  value.  But  as  he  was  one  of 
the  most  widely  read  authors  of  the  early  Middle  Ages,  he  is 
of  importance  for  having  in  that  dark  time  continued  the 
thread  of  the  learning  of  antiquity,  even  though  that  thread 
was  thin  and  weak.  He  was  also  to  have  an  influence  on 
cartography.  With  his  fondness  for  bad  etymological  inter- 
pretations he  derived  the  word  "  rotunditas,"  for  the  round- 
ness of  the  earth,  from  "  rota,"  wheel,  and  he  taught  that 
"  the  word  '  orbis '  is  used  on  account  of  the  roundness  of 
the  circumference,  since  it  is  like  a  wheel.  For  in  every  part 
the  circumfluent  ocean  surrounds  its  borders  in  a  circle." 
Hence  the  conception  of  the  earth's  disc  as  a  wheel  came  to 
be  general  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  and  hence  the  designation 
of  wheel-maps.  Isidore  divided  the  earth's  disc  into  three 
parts,  Asia  (including  Paradise)  at  the  top  of  the  wheel-map, 
and  Europe  and  Africa,  also  called  Lybia,  at  the  bottom;  and 
the  boundaries  between  these  continents  formed  a  T  with  the 
rivers  Tanais  and  Nile  horizontally  at  the  top,  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean ("  Mare  Magnum ")  below.  Therefore  maps  of  this 
type,  which  was  maintained  for  a  long  time,  are  also  called  T- 
maps.^  Otherwise  Isidore  declared  clearly  enough  in  favor  of 
the  spherical  form  of  the  earth. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  monk  and  scholar,  Beda  Venerabilis 
(673-735),  who  in  his  work  "Liber  de  natura  rerum"  also 
mentions  the  countries  of  the  earth,  but  without  making  any 
fresh  statement  about  the  North,  was  strongly  influenced  by 
Isidore.  He  asserts,  however,  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth 
in  an  intelligent  way,  giving,  amongst  other  reasons,  that  of 
the  ancient  Greeks,  that  earth  and  water  are  attracted  towards 
1  They  were  also  called  OT  maps; OT being  the  initials  of  Orbis  Terrarum. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


a  central  point.  The  form  of  a  sphere  was  also  the  only  one 
that  would  explain  why  certain  stars  were  visible  in  the  north, 
but  not  in  the  south. 


Europe  on  the  reconstructed  map  of  the  world  of  the  Ravenna 
geographer   [after  K.  Miller] 

A  few  new  facts  about  the  North  are  to  be  found  in  the 
anonymous  author  who  wrote  a  cosmography  at  the  close  of 
the  seventh  century.  As,  according  to  his  own  statement,  he 
was  bom  at  Ravenna,  he  is  usually  known  as  the  Ravenna  ge- 
ographer, but  otherwise  nothing  is  known  of  him,  except  that 
he  was  probably  a  priest.  He  bases  his  work  on  older  au- 
152 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

thors;  the  Bible,  some  Latin,  some  Greek,  and  some  later 
writers;  but  he  certainly  had  a  Roman  itinerary  map  like  the 
Tabula  Peutingeriana.  His  statements  about  the  north  are 
in  part  taken  from  Jordanes,  but  he  also  quotes  three  other 
"  Gothic  scholars,"  who  are  otherwise  entirely  unknown. 
One  of  them,  Aithanarit  (or  Athanaric?),  is  mentioned  par- 
ticularly in  connection  with  the  Skridfinns.  The  other  two, 
Eldevaldus  (or  Eldebald?)  and  Marcomirus  (or  Marco- 
meres?),  have  also  described  western  Europe,  the  latter  is  spe- 
cially used  in  the  description  of  the  countries  of  the  Danes,  Sax- 
ons, and  Frisians. 

The  Ravenna  geographer  regarded  the  earth's  disc  as  approximately 
round,  and  surrounded  by  ocean,  but  the  latter  was  not  entirely  continuous,  for 
it  did  not  extend  behind  India.  It  was  true  that  some  cosmographers  had  de- 
scribed it  so,  but  no  Christian  ought  to  believe  this,  for  Paradise  was  in  the 
extreme  East,  near  to  India;  and  as  the  pollen  is  wafted  by  the  breath  of  the 
wind  from  the  male  palm  to  the  female  near  it,  so  does  a  beneficent  perfume 
from  Paradise  blow  upon  the  aromatic  flowers  of  India.  Some  thought  that 
the  sun  in  its  course  returned  to  the  east  under  the  depths  of  ocean;  but  the 
Ravenna  geographer  agreed  with  those  who  said  that  the  sun  moved  all  night 
along  paths  which  cannot  be  traced,  behind  lofty  mountains,  in  the  north  be- 
yond the  ocean,  and  in  the  morning  it  came  forth  again  from  behind  them. 

[iv.  12.]  "  In  a  line  with  Scythia  and  the  coast  of  the  ocean  is  the  country 
which  is  said  to  be  that  of  the  '  Rerefeni '  and  '  Sirdifeni '  ('  Scirdif rini '). 
The  people  of  this  country,  according  to  what  the  Gothic  scholar  Aithanarit 
says,  dwell  among  the  rocks  of  the  mountains,  and  both  men  and  women  are 
said  to  live  by  hunting,  and  to  be  entirely  unacquainted  both  with  meat  and 
wine.  This  land  is  said  to  be  colder  than  all  others.  Farther  on  by  the  side 
of  the  Serdifenni  on  the  coast  of  the  ocean  is  the  land  which  is  called  Dania; 
this  land,  as  the  above-mentioned  Aithanaridus  and  Eldevaldus  and  Marco- 
mirus, the  Gothic  scholars,  say,  produces  people  who  are  swifter  than  all 
others."  [These  must  be  the  ErulL]  "  This  Dania  is  now  called  the  land  of 
the  Nordomanni."  This  is  the  first  time  the  name  Norman  is  used,  so  far  as  is 
known. 

[v.  30.]  "  In  the  northern  ocean  itself,  after  the  land  of  the  Roxolani,  is 
an  island  which  is  called  Scanza,  which  is  also  called  Old  Scythia  by  most  cos- 
mographers. But  in  what  manner  the  island  of  Scanza  itself  lies,  we  will 
with  God's  help  relate." 

He  says,  following  Jordanes  (see  above,  p.  130).  that  from 
this  island  other  nations,  amongst  them  the  Goths  and  the  Danes, 
besides  the  Gepidae,  migrated. 

153 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


It  will  be  seen  that  the  Ravenna  geographer's  statements 
about  the  Skridfinns,  whose  name  is  varied  and  corrupted 
even  more  than  in  Jordanes,  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to 
those  of  Procopius,  although  he  says  he  derived  them  from  the 
Goth  Aithanarit;  if  this  is  correct,  then  the  latter  must  either 
have  borrowed  from  Procopius,  which  is  very  probable,  or 
he  is  older  and  was  the  common  authority  both  of  Procopius 

and  the  Ravenna  geographer,  and 
if  so,  perhaps  also  of  Cassio- 
dorus(?). 

An  enigmatical  work,  probably  dating 
from  about  the  seventh  century,  which  was 
much  read  in  the  Middle  Ages,  professes  to 
be  a  Latin  translation,  by  a  certain  Hier- 
onymus,  from  a  Christian  book  of  travel  by 
a  Greek  commonly  called  ^thicus  Istri- 
cus.i  He  is  said  to  have  travelled  before 
the  fourth  century.  The  translator  asserts 
that  ^thicus  had  related  many  fabulous 
things,  which  he  has  not  repeated,  as  he 
wished  to  keep  to  the  sure  facts;  but 
among  them  we  find  many  remarkable 
pieces  of  information,  as  that  ^thicus  had 
seen  with  his  own  eyes  on  the  north  of  the 
Caspian  Sea  the  Amazons  give  the  breast  to 
Centaurs  and  Minotaurs,  and  when  he  was 
living  in  the  town  of  Choolisma,  built  by 
Japhet's  son  Magog,  he  saw  the  sea  of  bitu- 
peninsula  men  which  forms  the  mouth  of  Hell  and 
from  which  the  cement  for  Alexander's  wall 
of  iron  came.  In  Armenia  he  looked  in  vain 
for  Noah's  ark;  but  he  saw  dragons,  os- 
triches, griffins,  and  ants  as  large  and  ferocious  as  dogs.  He  also  mentioned 
griffins  and  treasures  of  gold  in  the  north  between  the  Tanais  and  the  north- 
ern ocean.  "  The  Scythians,  Griffins,  Tracontians,  and  Saxons  built  ships  of 
wattles  smeared  over  with  pitch  "  (perhaps  it  is  meant  that  they  were  also  cov- 
ered with  hides).  These  ships  were  extraordinarily  swift.  Among  the  Scy- 
thians there  was  said  to  be  an  able  craftsman  and  great  teacher,  Grifo,  who 
built  ships  with  prows  in  the  northern  ocean.  He  was  like  the  griffins  or  the 
flying  fabulous  birds,  ^thicus  visited  an  island  called  Munitia  north  of  Ger- 
mania.     There    he    found    "  Cenocephali "    (dog-headed    men).     They   were    a 


Cynocephali     on     a 

north-east    of    Norway 
(from  the  Hereford  map) 


1  Cf.  Wuttke,  1854. 


154 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 


hideous  race.  The  Germanic  peoples  came  to  the  island  as  merchants  and 
called  the  people  "  Cananei."  They  go  with  bare  calves,  smear  their  hair  with 
oil  or  fat  and  smell  foully.  They  lead  a  dirty  life  and  feed  on  unclean  animals, 
mice,  moles,  etc.  They  live  in  felt  tents  in  the  woods  far  away  by  fens  and 
swampy  places.  They  have  a  number  of  cattle,  fowls,  and  eggs.i  They  know 
no  god  and  have  no  king.  They  use  more  tin  than  silver.  One  might  be 
tempted  to  think  that  this  fable  of  dog-headed  people  in  the  north  had  arisen, 
from  the  word  "Kvaen"  (Finn),  which  to  a  Greek  like  .ffithicus  would  sound 
like  "  cyon  "  (dog).  The  name  "  Cenocephali "  may  have  been  introduced  in 
this  way,  while  that  of  "  Cananei"  may  have  arisen  by  a  sort  of  corrupt  simi- 
larity of  sound  between  Kvaen  and  the  Old  Testament  people  of  Canaan.  It 
might  thus  be  Kvaenland  or  Finland  that  is  here  spoken  of.  Their  going  with 
bare  calves  and  living  in  felt  tents  may  remind  us  of  the  Argippasi  of  Herodo- 
tus, who  were  bald 
(while  in  Mela  they 
went  bare-headed) 
and  had  felt  tents  in 
winter. 

The  L  a  n  g  o- 
bard  author 
Paulus  Warne- 
fridi,  also  called 
Diaconus  (about 
720-790)  gives 
for  the  most  part  The  Seven  Sleepers  in  the  Cave  by  the  North 

more    or     less  ^**  [from  Olaus  Magnus] 

confused  extracts  from  earlier  authors,  but  he  seems  besides 
to  have  obtained  some  new  information  about  the  North.  Just 
as  the  Goth  Jordanes  (or  Cassiodorus,  or  Ablabius)  makes  the 
Goths  emigrate  from  Ptolemy's  Scandza,  so  Paulus,  following 
earlier  authors,-  makes  the  Langobards  proceed  from  Pliny's 


iThe  text  has  "ovium"  (  =  sheep),  but  this  is  doubtless  a  copyist's  error 
for  "  ovum  "  (  =  egg).  This  may  remind  us  of  the  CEonae  of  Mela  and  Pliny, 
who  lived  on  the  eggs  of  fen  fowls  (see  above,  p.  92). 

=  Cf.  the  "  Origo  Gentis  Langobardorum  "  (of  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century),  where  the  "  Winnilians,"  who  were  later  called  Langobards,  live 
originally  on  an  island  called  "  Scadanan,"  or  in  another  MS.  "  Scadan."  The 
latter  name,  with  the  addition  of  a  Germanic  word  for  meadow  or  island, 
might  become  Scadanau,  Scadanauge,  or  Scadanovia.  Cf.  also  Fredegar  Scholas- 
ticus'  abbreviated  history  after  Gregory  of  Tours,  where  it  is  related  that  the 
Langobards  originated  in  "  Schatanavia,"  or  in  one  MS.  "  Schatanagia." 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

island  Scatinavia,  far  in  the  north.  It  looks  as  though  at  that 
time  a  northern  origin  was  held  in  high  esteem.  But  Paulus 
describes  the  country,  from  the  statements  of  those  who  have 
seen  it,  as  not  "  really  lying  in  the  sea,  but  the  waves  wash  the 
low  shores."  This  points  to  a  confusion  here  with  a  district 
called  Scatenauge  by  the  Elbe,  which  in  a  somewhat  later  MS. 
(about  807)  of  the  Langobardic  Law  is  mentioned  as  the  home 
of  the  Langobards  [cf.  Lonborg,  1897,  P-  27].  Paulus  further 
relates  that  on  the  coast  "  north-west  towards  the  uttermost 
boundaries  of  Germany  "  there  lie  seven  men  asleep  in  a  cave, 
for  how  long  is  uncertain.  They  resemble  the  Romans  in  appear- 
ance, and  both  they  and  their  clothes  are  unharmed,  and  they  are 
regarded  by  the  inhabitants  as  holy.  The  legend  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers  is  already  found  in  Gregory  of  Tours,  who  has  it  from 
Asia  Minor,  where  it  arose  in  the  third  century  and  was  located 
at  Ephesus  [cf.  J.  Koch,  1883].  The  legend  was  very  common 
in  Germania,  and  we  find  it  again  later  in  tales  of  shipwreck  on 
the  coast  of  Greenland.' 

"  Near  to  this  place  [i.e.,  the  cave  with  the  seven  men]  dwell  the  '  Scrito- 
bini';=  thus  is  this  people  called;  they  have  snow  even  in  summer  time,  and 
they  eat  nothing  but  the  raw  flesh  of  wild  beasts,  as  they  do  not  differ  from 

1  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Paulus  has  managed  to  transfer  the  legend 
to  the  north.  It  might  be  thought  that  the  idea,  which  already  appears  in 
Herodotus,  that  the  people  of  the  north  sleep  for  the  six  winter  months  (see 
p.  20),  is  connected  with  it.  Plutarch  [De  fectu  oraculorum,  c.  18]  relates 
that  in  the  ocean  beyond  Britain  there  was  according  to  the  statement  of 
Demetrius  an  island  "  where  Cronos  was  imprisoned  and  guarded,  while  he 
slept,  by  Briareus.  For  sleep  had  been  used  as  a  bond,  and  there  were  many 
spirits  about  him  as  companions  and  servants."  According  to  another  pass- 
age in  Plutarch  ["  De  facie  in  orbe  Lunas,"  941]  this  island  was  north-west  of 
the  isle  of  Ogygia,  which  was  five  days'  sail  west  of  Britain.  It  is  possible 
that  this  myth  of  the  sleeping  Cronos  has  also  helped  to  locate  the  legend  of 
the  Seven  Sleepers  on  the  north-west  coast  of  Europe.  Viktor  Rydberg  [i886, 
i.  pp.  529  ff.]  thought  that  the  legend  and  its  localization  in  the  north  might 
be  connected  with  Mimer's  seven  sons,  who  in  the  Volospo's  description  (st. 
45)  of  Ragnarok,  were  to  spring  up  at  the  sound  of  the  horn  Gjallar,  after 
having  lain  asleep  for  long  ages.  But  this  interpretation  of  the  strophe: 
"  Leika  Mims  synir"  is  improbable. 

2  In  other  MSS.  Scridowinni  and  Scritofinni,  etc. 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 


the  beasts  themselves  in  intelligence,  and  they  also  make  themselves  clothes 
of  their  skins  with  the  hair  on.  Their  name  is  explained  from  the  word  to  leap 
in  the  foreign  tongue  [i.e.,  Germanic],  for  by  leaping  with  a  certain  art  they 
overtake  the  wild  beasts  with  a  piece  of  wood 
bent  like  a  bow.  Among  them  is  an  animal 
which  is  not  much  unlike  a  stag,  and  I  have 
seen  a  dress  made  of  the  hide  of  this  animal, 
just  as  if  it  was  bristling  with  hairs,  and  it  was 
made  like  a  tunic  and  reached  to  the  knees,  as 
the  above-mentioned  Scritobini  wear  it,  as  I 
have  told.  In  these  parts,  at  the  summer  sol- 
stice, there  is  seen  for  several  days,  even  at 
night,  the  clearest  light,  and  they  have  there 
much  more  daylight  than  elsewhere,  as  on  the 
other  hand,  about  the  winter  solstice,  even  if 
there  is  daylight,  the  sun  itself  is  not  seen 
there,  and  the  day  is  shorter  than  in  any  other 
place,  the  nights  also  are  longer;  for  the 
farther  one  goes  away  from  the  sun,  the  nearer 
the  sun  appears  to  the  earth  [the  horizon], 
and  the  shadows  become  longer.      .     .    . 

"  And  not  far  from  the  shore  which  we  be- 
fore spoke  of  [by  the  cave]  on  the  west,  where 
the  ocean  extends  without  bounds,  is  that  very 
deep  abyss  of  the  waters  which  we  commonly 
call  the  ocean's  navel.  It  is  said  twice  a  day 
to  suck  the  waves  into  itself,  and  to  spew  them 
out  again;  as  is  proved  to  happen  along  all 
these  coasts,  where  the  waves  rush  in  and  go 
back  again  with  fearful  rapidity.  Such  a  gulf  or  whirlpool  is  called  by  the  poet 
Virgil  Caribdis,  and  in  his  poem  he  says  it  is  in  the  strait  by  Sicily,  as  he  says: 


The  oldest  knowm 
picture  of  a  ski-runner 
(from  the  Hereford 
map's  representation  of 
Norway,  thirteenth  cen- 
tury). 


'  Scilla  lies  on  the  right  hand 
and  the  implacable  Caribdis  on  the  left. 
And  three  times  it  sucks  the  vast  billows 
down  into  the  abyss  with  the  deep  whirlpool 
of  the  gulf,  and  it  sends  them  up  again  into  the  air, 
and   the  wave  lashes  the   stars.' 


"  By  the  whirlpool  of  which  we  have  spoken  it  is  asserted  that  ships  are 
often  drawn  in  with  such  rapidity  that  they  seem  to  resemble  the  flight  of  ar- 
rows through  the  air;  and  sometimes  they  are  lost  in  this  gulf  with  a  very 
frightful  destruction.  Often  just  as  they  are  about  to  go  under,  they  are 
brought  back  again  by  a  sudden  shock  of  the  waves,  and  they  are  sent  out 
again  thence  with  the  same  rapidity  with  which  they  were  drawm  in.  It  is  as- 
serted that  there  is  also  another  gulf  of  the  same  kind  between  Britain  and  the 

157 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Gallician  province  [i.e.,  northern  Spain],"  whereupon  there  follows  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  tides  on  the  south  coast  of  France  and  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers, 
after  which  there  is  a  highly  colored  account  of  the  horrors  of  the  Ebudes, 
where  they  can  hear  the  noise  of  the  waters  rushing  towards  a  similar  Caribdis. 

Paulus  Warnefridi  evidently  had  a  very  erroneous  idea  of 
ski  running,  which  he  made  into  a  leaping  instead  of  a  gliding 
motion.  He  may  have  imagined  that  they  jumped  about  on 
pieces  of  wood  bent  like  bows.  That  the  abyss  of  waters  or 
navel  of  the  sea  is  thought  to  be  in  the  north  may  be  due  to  re- 
ports  either   of  the   current   in  the   Pentland   Firth   or   of   the 


The  Maelstrom  near  the   Lofoten   Islands 
[from    Olaus    Magnus] 

Mosken-strom  or  the  Salt-strom,  which  thus  make  their  appear- 
ance here  in  literature,  and  which  were  afterwards  developed 
into  the  widespread  ideas  of  the  Middle  Ages  about 
maelstroms  and  abysses  in  the  sea,  perhaps  by  being  connected 
with  the  ancient  Greek  conception  of  the  uttermost  abyss 
(Tartarus,  Anostus,  Ginnungagap;  see  pp.  ii,  12,  17),  and  as 
here  with  the  description  of  the  current  in  the  Straits  of 
Messina. 

Viktor  Rydberg  [1886,  pp.  318,  425,  ff.]  supposed  Paulus's 
description  of  the  whirlpool  to  be  derived  from  the  Norse  legends 
of  the  world's  well,  "  Hvergelmer  " — which  causes  the  tides  by 
the  water  flowing  up  and  down  through  its  subterranean  chan- 
158 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE    AGES 

nels — and  of  the  quern  "  Grotte  "  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  which 
forms  whirlpools  when  the  waters  run  down  into  the  hole  in 
the  mill-stone.^  But  it  is  perhaps  just  as  probable  that  it  is 
the  southern,  originally  classical  ideas  which  have  been  localized 
in  the  Norse  legends.  As  we  have  seen,  we  find  in  Virgil  the 
same  conception  of  a  gulf  in  the  sea  which  sucks  the  water  into 
itself  and  sends  it  up  again.  Isidore  says  of  the  abyss  (also 
repeated  in  Hrabanus  Maurus) : 

Abyssus  is  the  impenetrable  deep  of  the  waters,  or  the  caves  of  the  hidden 
waters,  from  whence  springs  and  rivers  issue  forth,  but  also  those  which  run 
concealed  beneath  the  ground.  Therefore  it  is  called  Abyssus,  for  all  streams 
return  by  hidden  veins  to  their  mother  Abyssus. 

It  is  credible  that  ideas  such  as  this  may  have  originated, 
or  at  any  rate  colored  the  myth  of  "  Hvergelmer "  (i.e.,  the 
noisy  or  bubbling  kettle).  Isidore  was  early  known  in  England, 
Ireland,  and  Scandinavia.  The  whirlpool  is  also  found  among 
Orientals;  thus  Sindbad  is  drawn  into  it.  Paulus's  mention  of 
whirlpools  not  only  in  the  north,  and  off  the  Hebrides,  but  also 
between  Britain  and  Spain  and  in  the  Straits  of  Messina,  does 
not  show  that  he  derived  the  legend  solely  from  the  North. 
Later,  on  the  other  hand,  in  Adam  of  Bremen,  the  whirlpool 
becomes  more  exclusively  northern,  and  later  still  we  shall  get 
it  even  at  the  North  Pole  itself. 

Paulus  Wamefridi  also  mentions  Greek  fabulous  people 
such  as  the  Dog-heads  (Cynocephali)  and  the  Amazons  in 
North  Germania.  He  says  that  the  Langobards  fought  with  a 
people  called  "  Assipitti,"  who  lived  in  "  Mauringa,"  and  that 
they  frightened  them  by  saying  that  they  had  Cynocephali  in 
their  army,  who  drank  human  blood,  their  own  if  they  could 
not  get  that  of  others.  The  Langobards  were  said  to  have 
been  stopped  by  the  Amazons  at  a  river  in  Germany.  The 
1  According  to  the  "  Grottasongr,"  Mysing  carried  off  the  quern  and  the 
two  female  thralls,  Fenja  and  Menja,  on  his  ship  and  bade  them  grind  salt,  and 
they  ground  until  the  ship  sank  (according  to  some  MSS.  it  was  in  the  Pent- 
land  Firth),  and  there  was  afterwards  a  whirlpool  in  the  sea,  where  the  water 
falls  into  the  hole  in  the  quern.  Thus  the  sea  became  salt.  This  is  the  same 
legend  which  is  repeated  in  the  tale  of  the  mill  which  grinds  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

Langobard  king,  Lamissio,  fought  with  the  bravest  of  them, 
while  he  was  swimming  in  the  river,  and  slew  her;  and  accord- 
ing to  a  prearranged  agreement  he  thereby  obtained  for  his 
people  the  right  of  crossing  unhindered.  Paulus  regards  the 
story  as  untrue,  as  the  Amazons  were  supposed  to  have  been 
destroyed  long  before  ;  but  he  had  nevertheless  heard  that  there 
was  a  tribe  of  such  women  in  the  interior  of  Germany.  The 
same  idea  of  a  female  nation  in  Germany  occurs  again  later  in 
literature  (cf.  King  Alfred's  "  MaegSa-land  "). 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  (p.  123)  that  in  the  MSS. 
of  Solinus  of  the  ninth  century  and  later  there  is  found  a  men- 
tion of  the  Ebudes,  the  Orcades  and  Thule,  which  in  the 
opinion  of  Mommsen  is  a  later  addition;  and  as  it  is  not  found 
in  Isidore  Hispalensis,  who  made  extensive  use  of  Solinus, 
it  must  have  been  introduced  after  his  time  (seventh  century), 
but  before  the  ninth  century,  when  it  occurs  in  a  MS.  As 
the  addition  about  Thule,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  must  show 
that  this  country  is  regarded  as  Norway,  and  as  there  are  many 
indications  that  it  was  made  by  an  Irish  monk,  it  is  further 
probable  that  it  belongs  to  the  period  before  the  Irish  discovery 
of  Iceland,  which  then,  according  to  Dicuil's  book,  became  re- 
garded as  Thule.  I  think,  therefore,  we  can  place  the  addition 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century,  and  it  will  then  be 
evidence  of  the  knowledge  of  Norway  which  prevailed  in  the 
British  Isles  at  that  time.  After  having  mentioned  Britain 
and  the  neighboring  islands  the  account  proceeds  [Solinus, 
c.  22] : 

From  the  Caledonian  Promontory  it  is  two  days'  sail  for  those  who  voyage 
to  Tyle  [Thule].  From  thence  begin  the  Ebudes  islands  [Hebrides],  five  in 
number  [the  five  principal  islands].  Their  inhabitants  live  on  fruits,  fish,  and 
milk.  Though  there  are  many  islands,  they  are  all  separated  by  narrow  arms 
of  the  sea.  They  all  together  have  but  one  king.  The  king  owns  nothing  for 
himself  alone,  all  is  common  property.  Justice  is  imposed  upon  him  by  fixed 
laws,  and  lest  he  should  be  led  away  from  the  truth  by  covetousness,  he 
learns  righteousness  by  poverty,  since  he  has  no  possessions;  he  is  therefore 
supported  by  the  people.  No  woman  is  given  him  in  marriage,  but  he  takes 
in  turn  her  who  pleases  him  at  the  moment.  Thus  he  has  neither  the  desire 
nor  the  hope  of  children.     The  second  station  for  the  voyager  [to  Thule]  is 

160 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

provided  by  the  Orcades.  But  the  Orcades  lie  seven  days'  and  the  same  num- 
ber of  nights'  sail  from  the  Ebudes,  they  are  three  in  number  [i.e.,  the  three 
principal  isles  of  the  Shetlands].  They  are  uninhabited  ("vacant  homines"). 
They  have  no  woods,  but  are  rough  with  reeds  and  grass,  the  rest  is  bare 
sandy  beach  and  rocks.  From  the  Orcades  direct  to  Thule  is  five  days'  and 
nights'  sail.  But  Thule  is  fertile  and  rich  in  late-ripening  fruits.  The  inhabi- 
tants there  live  from  the  beginning  of  spring  with  their  cattle,  and  feed  on 
herbs  and  milk;  the  fruits  of  the  trees  they  keep  for  winter.  They  have 
women  in  common,  regular  marriage  is  not  known  among  them. 

This  description  cannot  well  be  pure  invention,  and  unless 
it  may  be  thought  to  be  transferred  from  another  place,  we  must 
believe  it  to  be  derived  from  a  distant  knowledge  of  Norway. 
Their  living  with  the  cattle  in  spring  is  in  accordance  with  this, 
but  not  their  subsistence  on  the  fruits  of  the  trees.  Here  one 
would  rather  be  led  to  think  of  the  Hesperides  and  their  golden 
apples,  unless  we  are  to  suppose  that  they  collected  nuts  and 
berries.  That  the  inhabitants  of  Thule  had  women  in  common 
might  be  connected  with  the  predilection  of  the  Scandinavians 
for  polygamy,  of  which  we  also  hear  from  other  sources  ;  but 
this  is  uncertain.  Even  the  Greeks  and  Romans  saw  in  the 
absence  of  regular  marriage  a  sign  of  barbarism,  which  brought 
man  near  to  the  beasts,  and  which  they  therefore  attributed 
to  people  at  the  extreme  limits  of  the  earth  ;  cf.  Herodotus,  and 
Strabo's  description  of  the  Irish  (p.  8i).  If  the  Caledonian 
Promontory  means  Scotland,  it  is  surprising  that  it  should  be 
two  days'  sail  to  the  Hebrides,  and  that  these  were  the  first 
and  the  Orcades  the  second  station  on  the  way  to  Thule.  We 
must  then  suppose  that  there  has  been  a  jumbling  together  of 
several  authorities,  which  is  not  very  probable  if  this  is  a  later 
interpolation,  since  we  must  doubtless  believe  the  interpolating 
copyist  to  have  thought  himself  possessed  of  knowledge  of  these 
matters.  If,  however,  we  suppose  him  to  have  been  an  Irish- 
man, and  to  have  looked  upon  the  voyage  to  Thule  with  Ireland 
as  a  starting-point,  then  it  becomes  more  consistent.  It  is 
then  two  days'  sail  from  Ireland  to  the  Hebrides,  seven  days 
thence  to  the  Shetlands,  and  then  five  to  Thule  ;  that  is,  the 
whole  voyage  will  last  fourteen  days  ;  and  this  may  be  about 

i6i 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

right.  It  is  undeniably  somewhat  surprising  that  there 
should  be  no  inhabitants  on  the  Orcades,  or  Shetland,  at  that 
time. 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  FAROES  AND  ICELAND  BY  THE  IRISH 
IN  THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY 

The  earliest  voyages  northward  to  the  Arctic  Circle,  of  which 
there  is  certain  literary  mention  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  are 
the  Irish  monks'  expeditions  across  the  sea  in  their  small  boats, 
whereby  they  discovered  the  Faroes  and  Iceland,  and,  at  all 
events  for  a  time,  lived  there.  Of  these  the  Irish  monk  Dicuil 
gave  an  account,  as  early  as  about  the  year  825,  in  his 
description  of  the  earth,  "  De  Mensura  Orbis  Terrae "  [cf. 
Letronne,  1814,  pp.  38,  f.,  131,  f.].  It  is  characteristic  of  the 
spiritual  tendency  of  that  period  of  the  Middle  Ages  that  these 
remarkable  voyages  were  not,  like  other  voyages  of  discovery, 
undertaken  from  love  of  gain,  thirst  for  adventure,  or  desire 
of  knowledge,  but  chiefly  from  the  wish  to  find  lonely  places, 
where  these  anchorites  might  dwell  in  peace,  undisturbed 
by  the  turmoil  and  temptations  of  the  world.'  In  this  way 
the  unknown  islands  near  the  Arctic  Ocean  must  have 
seemed  to  satisfy  all  their  requirements  ;  but  their  joy  was 
short-lived  ;  the  disturbers  of  the  North,  the  Vikings  from  Nor- 
way, soon  came  there  also  and  drove  them  out  or  oppressed 
them. 

What  Dicuil  tells  us  of  the  Scandinavian  North  is  chiefly 
derived  from  Pliny,  and  contains  nothing  new.  But  of  the  un- 
known islands  in  the  northern  ocean  he  writes  [7,  3]  : 

There  are  many  more  islands  in  the  ocean  north  of  Britain,  which  can 
be  reached  from  the  northern  British  Isles  in  two  days'  and  two  nights'  direct 
sailing  with  full  sail  and  a  favorable  wind.  A  trustworthy  priest  ("  presby- 
ter religiosus  ")  told  me  that  he  had  sailed  for  two  summer  days  jind  an  in- 
tervening night  in  a  little  boat  with  two  thwarts  [i.e.,  two  pairs  of  oars],=  and 

1  As  wall  be  mentioned  later,  the  islands  were  possibly  inhabited  by  Celts 
before  the  arrival  of  the  monks.  In  that  case  the  latter  must  doubtless  have 
visited  them  with  the  additional  object  of  spreading  Christianity. 

-It  has  also  been  translated:  "two  rows  of  oars,"  which  is  improbable. 
162 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

landed  on  one  of  these  islands.  These  islands  are  for  the  most  part  small; 
nearly  all  are  divided  from  one  another  by  narrow  sounds,  and  upon  them 
anchorites,  who  proceeded  from  our  Scotia  [i.e.,  Ireland],  have  lived  for  about 
a  hundred  years  ("  in  centrum  ferme  annis  ").  But  as  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world  they  had  always  been  deserted,  so  are  they  now  by  reason  of  the 
Nortman  pirates  emptied  of  anchorites,  but  full  of  innumerable  sheep  and  a 
great  number  of  different  kinds  of  sea  birds.  We  have  never  found  these 
islands  spoken  of  in  the  books  of  authors. 

This  description  best  suits  the  Faroes,^  where,  therefore, 
Irish  monks  had  previously  Hved,  and  from  whence  they 
had  been  driven  out  by  Nor- 
wegian seafarers,  probably  at 
the  close  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. As,  however,  Dicuil  is 
so  well  aware  of  the  islands 
being  full  of  sheep,  the  Irish 
may  have  continued  to  visit 
them  occasionally,  like  the 
trustworthy  priest  referred  to, 
who  sailed  there  in  a  boat  with 
two  thwarts.  Dicuil's  state- 
ment that  they  were  then 
"  emptied  of  anchorites  "  must 
doubtless  be  interpreted  to 
mean  that  they  were  unin- 
habited; but  this  does  not 
sound  very  probable.  Rather, 
there     are     many     indications 

that  the  islands  had  an  original  Celtic  population,  which  con- 
tinued to  live  there  after  the  settlement  of  the  Norsemen. 

There  are  some  Celtic  place-names,  such  as  "  Dimon  "  (the  islands  "  Stora 
Dimon  "  and  "  Litla  Dimon,")  or  "  Dimun  meiri "  and  "  Dimun  minni "  from 
the  Celtic  "dimun"  (  =  double  neck),  thus  like  Norwegian  "  Tviberg  ".^     As 


The  Faroes 


1  Some  writers  have  thought  that  they  might  be  the  Shetlands;  but  this 
seems  less  probable. 

-  Cf.  A.  Bugge,  190S,  pp.  55  f.  Several  names  of  fishing-banks,  which  A. 
Bugge  gives  from  Dr.  Jakobsen,  are  also  of  interest.  Off  Sandey  is  a  fishing- 
bank  called  "  Knokkur  "  (or  "  a  Knokki "),  and  one  of  the  same  name  lies  west 


163 


IN    NORTHERN   MISTS 

such  Celtic  place-names  cannot  have  been  introduced  later,  the  Norwegians 
must  have  got  them  from  the  Celts  who  were  there  before,  and  with  whom  they 
had  intercourse.  The  language  of  the  Faroes  has  also  many  loan-words  from 
Celtic,  mostly  for  agriculture  and  cattle  farming,  and  for  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  the  islands.  These  might  be  explained  by  many  of  the  Norwegian  settlers 
having  previously  lived  in  the  Scottish  islands  or  in  Ireland,  or  having  had 
frequent  communication  with  those  countries  [cf.  A.  Bugge,  1905,  p.  358] ;  but 
it  seems  more  natural  to  suppose  that  the  loan-words  are  derived  from  a 
primitive  Celtic  population.  To  this  must  be  added  that  the  people  of  the 
Southern  Faroes  are  still  dark,  with  dark  eyes  and  black  hair,  and  differ  from 
the  more  Germanic  type  of  the  northern  islands  [cf.  D.  Bruun,  1902,  p.  5]. 
The  name  "  Faeroene "  (sheep-islands)  shows  that  there  probably  were  sheep 
before  the  Norsemen  came,  which  so  far  agrees  vyith  Dicuil;  these  sheep  must 
then  have  been  introduced  by  the  earlier  Celts. 

According  to  this  it  seems  possible  that  the  Irish  monks 
came  to  the  islands  not  merely  as  anchorites,  but  also  to 
spread  Christianity  among  a  Celtic  population.  The  Norwegians 
arrived  later,  took  possession  of  the  islands,  and  oppressed  the 
Celts. 

But  the  bold  Irish  monks  extended  their  voyages  farther 
north.  Dicuil  has  also  to  tell  us  hovi^  they  found  Iceland,  which 
he  calls  Thule,  and  lived  there.  After  having  mentioned  what 
Pliny,  Solinus,  Isidore  (Hispalensis),  and  Priscianus  say  about 
Thule  (Thyle),  he  continues  [7,  2,  6]  : 

It  is  now  thirty  years  since  certain  priests,  who  had  been  on  that  island 
from  the  ist  of  February  to  the  ist  of  August,  told  that  not  only  at  the  time 
of  the  summer  solstice,  but  also  during  the  days  before  and  after,  the  setting 
sun  at  evening  conceals  itself  as  it  were  behind  a  little  mound,  so  that  it  does 


of  Syd-Straumsey.  West  of  Sudrey  is  a  fishing-place  called  "  Knokkarnir." 
The  fishing-banks  are  called  after  the  landmarks;  "  cnoc "  is  Celtic  for  hill, 
and  must  have  been  the  name  of  the  heights  that  formed  landmarks  for  the 
fishing-places  in  question;  on  land  these  names  have  given  way  to  more 
modern  Norse  ones,  but  have  held  their  own  out  to  sea.  A.  Bugge  thinks  that 
the  Celtic  place-names  may  be  due  to  Norwegians,  who  before  they  came  to 
the  Faroes  had  lived  with  Irish-speaking  people  in  the  Scottish  islands  or  in 
Ireland;  but  it  nevertheless  seems  very  improbable  that  they  should  have  used 
a  foreign  language  to  give  names  to  their  new  home.  A  more  natural  ex- 
planation is  that  they  had  the  names  from  the  earlier  Celtic  inhabitants, 
whether  these  were  only  the  Irish  monks,  or  whether  there  were  others. 
Names  of  islands  and  hills  are  usually  among  the  most  ancient  of  place-names. 

164 


THE   EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

not  grow  dark  even  for  the  shortest  space  of  time,  but  whatsoever  work  a  man 
will  do,  even  picking  the  lice  out  of  his  shirt  (pediculos  de  camisia  extrahere), 
he  may  do  it  just  as  though  the  sun  were  there,  and  if  they  had  been  upon  the 
high  mountains  of  the  island  perhaps  the  sun  would  never  be  concealed  by 
them  [i.e.,  the  mountains].  In  the  middle  of  this  very  short  time  it  is  mid- 
night in  the  middle  of  the  earth,  and  on  the  other  hand  I  suppose  in  the  same 
way  that  at  the  winter  solstice  and  for  a  few  days  on  either  side  of  it  the  dawn 
is  seen  for  a  very  short  time  in  Thule,  when  it  is  midday  in  the  middle  of  the 
earth.  Consequently  I  believe  that  they  lie  and  are  in  error  who  wrote  that 
there  was  a  stiffened  (concretum)  sea  around  it  [i.e.,  Thyle],  and  likewise 
those  who  said  that  there  was  continuous  day  without  night  from  the  vernal 
equinox  till  the  autumnal  equinox,  and  conversely  continuous  night  from  the 
autumnal  equinox  till  the  vernal,  since  those  who  sailed  thither  reached  it  in 
the  natural  time  for  great  cold,  and  while  they  were  there  always  had  day  and 
night  alternately  except  at  the  time  of  the  summer  solstice;  but  a  day's  sail 
northward  from  it  they  found  the  frozen  (congelatum)  sea. 

This  description,  written  half  a  century  before  the  Nor- 
wegians, according  to  common  belief,  came  to  Iceland,  shows 
the  close  of  the  eighth  century  (thirty  years  before  Dicuil 
wrote  in  825),  and  how  much  earlier  we  cannot  say.  With 
the  first-hand  information  he  had  received  from  people  who  had 
been  there,  Dicuil  may  have  blended  ideas  which  he  had  obtained 
from  his  literary  studies.  The  sun  hiding  at  night  behind  a 
little  mound  reminds  us  of  the  older  ideas  that  it  went  behind 
a  mountain  in  the  north  (cf.  Cosmas  Indico  pleustes  and  the 
Ravenna  geographer) ;  but  of  course  it  may  also  be  due  to  local 
observation.  The  idea  that  the  frozen  sea  ("  congelatum 
mare  ")  had  been  found  a  day's  sail  north  of  this  island  is  pre- 
cisely the  same  as  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  authors,  where,  ac- 
cording to  Pytheas,  the  stiffened  sea  ("  concretum  mare ") 
or  the  sluggish  sea  ("  pigrum ")  lay  one  day's  sail  be- 
yond Thule  (cf.  p.  65).  But  this  does  not  exclude  the  possibility 
of  the  Irish  having  come  upon  drift-ice  north  of  Iceland  ;  on  the 
contrary,  this  is  very  probable. 

Dicuil's  statement  of  the  Irish  discovery  of  Iceland  is  con- 
firmed by  the  Icelandic  sagas.  Are  Frode  (about  1130)  relates 
that  at  the  time  the  Norwegian  settlers  first  came  to  Iceland, 

"there    were    Christians    here    whom    the    Norwegians    called    'papar' 

i6s 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

[priests] ;  but  they  afterwards  went  away,  because  they  would  not  be  here 
together  with  heathens,  and  they  left  behind  them  Irish  books,  bells,  and 
croziers,  from  which  it  could  be  concluded  that  they  were  Irishmen."  In  the 
Landnamabok,  which  gives  the  same  statement  from  Are,  it  is  added  that 
"  they  were  found  east  in  Papey  and  in  Papyli.  It  is  also  mentioned  in 
English  books  that  at  that  time  there  was  sailing  between  the  countries " 
[Le.,  between  Iceland  and  Britain]. 

In  many  other  passages  in  the  sagas  we  hear  of  them,^  and 
the  Norwegian  author  Tjodrik  Munk  (about  1180)  has  a  similar 
statement.  Many  places  in  south  Iceland,  such  as  "  Papaf  jorSr  " 
with  "  Papos,"  and  the  island  of  "  Papey,"  still  bear  names  de- 
rived from  these  first  inhabitants.  A  former  name  was  "  Pap- 
pyli,"  which  is  now  no  longer  used.  But  besides  these  place- 
names  there  are  many  others  in  Iceland  which  are  either  Celtic 
or  must  be  connected  with  the  Celts.  Thus,  among  the  first  that 
are  mentioned  in  the  Landnamabok  are  "  Minj'akseyrr "  and 
"  Vestmanna-eyjar."  "  Min['ak  "  is  an  Irish  word  for  a  dough  of 
meal  and  butter,  and  Westmen  were  the  Irish.  It  is  true  that 
in  the  Landnamabok  [cf.  F.  Jonsson,  1900,  pp.  7,  132,  265]  these 
names  are  placed  in  connection  with  the  Irish  thralls  whom 
Hjorleif,  the  associate  of  Ingolf,  had  brought  with  him,  and  who 
killed  him  ;  but,  as  the  more  particular  circumstances  of  the  tale 
show,  it  is  probable  that  it  is  the  place-names  that  are  original, 
and  that  have  given  rise  to  the  tale  of  the  thralls,  and  not  the 
reverse.  A.  Bugge  [1905,  pp.  359  ff.]  gives  a  whole  list  of  Ice- 
landic place-names  of  Celtic  origin,  mostly  derived  from  personal 
names  ;^   he   endeavors  to   explain  them  as  due  to   Celtic  in- 

1  Cf.  Landnama,  Prologue.  Further  on  in  the  Landnama  places  are  fre- 
quently mentioned  where  priests  had  formerly  lived,  and  where  in  conse- 
quence heathens  dared  not  settle. 

-  It  is  explicable  that  places  and  estates  may  be  called  after  the  personal 
names  of  Irish  land-takers;  but  it  is  more  difficult  to  understand  how  the 
Norwegians  should  have  come  by  Celtic  names,  derived  from  appellatives,  for 
mountains,  fjords,  and  rivers — which  are  everywhere  among  the  earliest  of 
place-names — if  the  Celts  had  not  been  there  before  they  came.  Among  such 
place-names  of  Celtic  origin,  or  which  indicate  a  Celtic  population,  may  be 
mentioned:  "  Dimunarvag,  Dimunar-klakkar "  (an  inlet  and  two  rocky  islets 
in  Breidif  jord) ;  "  Dimon,"  in  many  places  as  the  name  of  a  ridge,  a  mountain, 
and  an  islet;  "Katanes";  "Katadalr";  "  Ku6aflj6t,"  the  name  of  a  confluence 
166 


THE    EARLY    MIDDLE   AGES 

fluence,  through  Irish  land-takers  ;  but  the  most  natural 
explanation  is  certainly  here  as  with  the  Faroes,  that  there 
was  a  primitive  Celtic  population  in  Iceland,  and  not  merely  a 
few  Irish  monks,  when  the  Norwegians  arrived  ;  and  that  from 
these  Celts  the  Icelanders  are  in  part  descended,  while  they 
took  their  language  from  the  ruling  class,  the  Norwegians,  who 
also  became  superior  in  numbers.  Future  anthropological 
investigations  of  the  modem  Icelanders  may  be  able  to  throw 
light  on  these  questions.  The  original  Celtic  population  may 
have  been  small  and  dispersed,  but  may  nevertheless  have  made 
it  easier  for  the  Norwegians  to  settle  there,  as  they  did  not 
come  to  a  perfectly  uncultivated  country,  and  to  subdue  men 
takes  less  time  than  to  subdue  Nature.  As  to  how,  and  how 
early,  the  Celts  first  came  to  Iceland,  we  know  in  the  mean- 
time nothing. 

Einhard  (beginning  of  the  ninth  century),  the  biographer 
of  Charlemagne,  speaks  of  the  Baltic  as  a  bay  eastwards  from 
the  western  ocean  of  unknown  length  and  nowhere  broader 
than  100,000  paces  (about  ninety  miles),  and  mentions  the 
peoples  of  those  parts  :  "  '  Dani '  and  '  Sueones,'  whom  we  call 
'  Nordmanni,'  "  live  on  the  northern  shore  and  on  all  the  islands, 
while  Slavs  and  Esthonians  and  other  peoples  dwell  on  the 
southern  shore.  The  well-known  German  scholar,  Hrabanus 
Maurus  (circa  776-856),  Archbishop  of  Mayence  (847-856),  bases 
his  encyclopedic  work,  "  De  Universo  "  (completed  in  847),  in 
twenty-two  books,  chiefly  upon  Isidore,  from  whom  he  makes 
large  extracts,  and  has  little  to  say  about  the  North.  Rim- 
bertus  (end  of  the  ninth  century),  on  the  other  hand,  in  his 
biography  of  Ansgarius,  gives  much  information  about 
Scandinavia  and  its  people,  while  the  nearly  contemporary 
Bavarian  geographer  ("  geographus  Bavarus ")  describes  the 
Slavonic  peoples. 

of  several  rivers  into  a  large  piece  of  water,  in  Vester-Skaftarfells  district, 
from  Irish  "  cud  "  (  ^  head).  "  Mint'akseyrr  "  is  mentioned  above.  Further 
there  are  many  names  after  Irishmen:  a  river  "Ira,"  two  places  "IragerSi," 
a  channel  into  Hvammsf  jord  "  Irska  leiS,"  "  Irsku  bu?ir,"  a  hill  "  Irski  holl," 
besides  "  Vestmanna-eyjar,"  etc. 

167 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  AWAKENING  OF  MEDIEVAL  KNOWLEDGE  OF 

THE  NORTH 

KING  ALFRED,  OTTAR,  ADAM  OF  BREMEN 


IN  the  ninth  century  the  increasingly  frequent  Viking 
raids,  Charlemagne's  wars  and  conquests  in  the  North, 
and  the  labors  of  Christian  missionaries,  brought  about  an 
increase  of  intercourse,  both  warlike  and  peaceful,  between 
southern  Europe  and  the  people  of  the  Scandinavian 
North.  The  latter  had  gradually  come  to  play  a  certain 
part  on  the  world's  stage,  and  their  enterprises  began  to 
belong  to  history.  Their  countries  were  thereby  more  or 
less  incorporated  into  the  known  world.  Now  for  the  first 
time  the  mists  that  had  lain  over  the  northern  regions  of 
Europe  began  to  lift,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  geo- 
graphical knowledge  of  the  Middle  Ages  became  clearer,  and 
reached  farther  than  that  of  the  Greeks  a  thousand  years 
earlier. 

But  while  in  the  foregoing  centuries  the  clouds  had  moved 
slowly,  they  were  now  rapidly  dispelled  from  large  tracts  of 
the  northern  lands  and  seas.  This  was  due  in  the  first  place 
i68 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

to  the  voyages  of  the  Scandinavians,  especially  of  the  Nor- 
wegians. By  their  sober  accounts  of  what  they  had  found  they 
directed  geographical  science  into  new  and  fruitful  channels,  and 
freed  it  little  by  little  from  the  dead  weight  of  myths  and 
superstitions  which  it  had  carried  with  it  through  the  ages  from 
antiquity.  We  find  the  first  decisive  step  in  this  direction  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  king  Alfred  the  Great  of  England  (849 — circa 
901  A.  D.). 

King  Alfred  had  Orosius's  Latin  history  done  into  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  himself  translated  large  portions  of  the  work.  By 
about  880  he  was  at  peace  with  the  Danish  Vikings,  to  whom 
he  tiad  been  obliged  to  cede  the  north-eastern  half  of  England. 
He  died  about  901.  His  literary  activity  must  no  doubt  have 
fallen  within  the  period  between  these  dates.  Finding  the 
geographical  introduction  to  Orosius's  work  inadequate, 
especially  as  regards  northern  Europe,  he  added  what  he  had 
learnt  from  other  sources.  Thus,  from  information  probably 
obtained  from  Germans,  he  gives  a  survey  of  Germany,  which 
he  makes  extend  northwards  "  to  the  sea  which  is  called 
*  Cwen-sae.' "  What  is  meant  by  this  is  not  quite  clear  ;  it 
might  be  the  Polar  Sea  or  the  White  Sea  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
it  may  be  the  Baltic  or  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  ;  for  the  text  does 
not  make  it  certain  whether  King  Alfred  regarded  Scandinavia 
as  a  peninsula  connected  with  the  continent  or  not.  He  speaks 
of  countries  and  peoples  on  the  "  Ost-sse  ",'  and  he  mentions 
amongst  others  the  South  Danes  and  North  Danes  both  on  the 
mainland  (Jutland)  and  the  islands — both  peoples  with  the 
Ost-sae  to  the  north  of  them — further  the  "  Osti "  (probably  the 
Esthonians,  who  also  had  this  arm  of  the  sea,  the  Ost-sae,  to 
the  north).  Wends  and  Burgundians  (Bornholmers?),  who  "  have 

1  The  "  Ost-sae "  is  the  southern  and  western  part  of  the  Baltic  with  the 
Cattegat  and  a  part  o£  the  Skagerak,  as  distinguished  from  the  sea  to  the  west 
of  Jutland  (the  land  of  the  South  Danes),  which  is  "the  arm  of  the  sea  which 
lies  round  the  country  of  Britain."  The  sea  west  of  Norway  he  also  calls  the 
"  West-sae."  As  the  Ost-sae  is  called  an  arm  of  the  sea,  it  might  be  urged  that 
King  Alfred  therefore  regarded  Scandinavia  as  a  peninsula;  but  we  see  that 
he  also  calls  the  sea  round  Britain,  which  he  knew  better,  an  arm  of  the  sea. 

169 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

the  same  arm  of  the  sea  to  the  west  of  them,  and  the  Sveones 
(Svear)  to  the  north."  "  The  Sveones  have  south  of  them  the 
Esthonian  ['  Osti ']  arm  of  the  sea,  and  east  of  them  the  Ser- 
mende  [Sarmatians  ?  or  Russians  ?]  ;  and  to  the  north,  beyond 
the  uninhabited  tracts  [' westenni '],  is  '  Cwenland '  ;  and  north- 
virest  of  them  are  the  '  Scride-Finnas,'  and  to  the  west  the  Nor- 
wegians ('  NorSmenn ')." 

King  Alfred's  most  important  contribution  to  geographical 
knowledge   of  the   North   is  his  remarkable   account   of  what 

the  Norwegian 
Ottar  (or  "  Oh- 
there"  in  .  the 
Angl  o-S  axon 
text)  told  him 
about  his  voyage 
to  the  North. 
The  brief  and 
straightforward 
narrative  of  this 
serious  traveler 
forms  in  its  clear- 
ness and  definiteness  a  refreshing  contrast  to  the  vague  and 
confused  ideas  of  earlier  times  about  the  unknovsm  northern 
regions.  We  see  at  once  that  we  are  entering  upon  a  new 
period. 

"  Ottar  told  his  lord,  Alfred  the  king,  that  he  dwelt  farthest  north  of  all  the 
Norwegians.!  He  said  that  he  dwelt  on  the  northern  side  of  the  land  by  the 
'  West-sae.'  He  said  however  that  the  land  extends  very  far  to  the  north  from 
there;  but  that  it  is  quite  uninhabited  ('weste'),  except  that  in  a  few  places 


Map  of  northern  Scandinavia  and  the  White  Sea 


1  In  another  passage  somewhat  later  he  says  that  "  no  men  [i.e.,  Norsemen, 
Norwegian  chiefs]  lived  to  the  north  of  him."  This  may  have  been  some- 
where about  Malangen  or  Senjen,  which  archasological  remains  shows  to  have 
formed  the  approximate  northern  boundary  of  fixed  Norwegian  habitation  at 
that  time.  Norwegians  may  have  lived  here  and  there  farther  north  to  about 
Loppen  [cf.  A.  Bugge,  1908,  pp.  407  ff.] ;  but  Ottar  doubtless  means  that  no 
nobles  or  people  of  importance  lived  to  the  north  of  him. 
170 


AWAKENING    OF   MEDIAEVAL   KNOWLEDGE 

the  Finns  '  live,  hunting  in  the  winter  and  fishing  in  the  sea  in  summer.  He 
said  that  once  he  wished  to  find  out  how  far  the  land  extended  due  north,  and 
whether  any  man  lived  north  of  the  waste  tracts.  So  he  went  due  north  2 
along  the  coast;  the  whole  way  he  had  the  uninhabited  land  to  starboard  and 
the  open  sea  to  port  for  three  days.  Then  he  was  as  far  north  as  the  whalers 
go.3  Then  he  went  on  due  north  as  far  as  he  could  sail  in  the  next  three  days. 
There  the  land  turned  due  east,  or  the  sea  turned  into  the  land,*  he  did  not 
know  which;  but  he  knew  that  there  he  waited  for  a  west  wind,  or  with  a  little 
north  in  it,  and  sailed  thence  eastward  following  the  coast  as  far  as  he  could 
sail  in  five  days.  Then  he  had  to  wait  for  a  due  north  wind,  because  the  land 
there  turned  due  south,  or  the  sea  into  the  land,  he  did  not  know  which.^ 
Then  he  sailed  thence  due  south  along  the  coast,  as  far  as  he  could  sail  in  five 
days.  There  lay  a  great  river  going  up  into  the  land,  so  they  turned  up  into 
the  river,  because  they  dared  not  sail  past  it  for  fear  of  trouble,  since  all  the 
country  was  inhabited  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  He  had  not  met  with  in- 
habited country  before,  since  he  left  his  own  home;  but  all  the  way  there  was 
waste  land  to  starboard,  except  for  fishermen,  fowlers,  and  hunters,  and  they 
were  all  Finns,  and  there  was  always  sea  to  port.  The  land  of  the  Beormas 
was  well  inhabited;  but  they  [i.e.,  Ottar  and  his  men]  dared  not  land  there; 
but  the  land  of  the  Terfinnas  was  entirely  waste,  except  where  hunters  or 
fishers  or  fowlers  had  their  abode. 

"  The  Beormas  told  him  many  stories  both  about  their  own  country  and  the 
countries  that  were  about  it,  but  he  knew  not  what  was  true,  because  he  had 
not  seen  it  himself.  The  Finns  and  the  Beormas,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  spoke 
almost  the  same  language.     He  went  thither  chiefly  to  explore  the  country, 

1  It  may  be  explained  that  the  Lapps  are  called  "  Finns,"  both  in  Old 
Norse  and  modern  Norwegian.  As  it  is  not  absolutely  certain  to  what  race 
these  ancient  "  Finns "  belonged,  it  has  been  thought  best  to  retain  Ottar's 
name  for  them  here. 

-  It  is  clear  Ottar  reckoned  north  and  south  according  to  the  direction  of 
the  land,  and  not  according  to  the  meridian;  this  is  a  common  habit  among 
coast-dwellers,  who  live  on  a  coast  that  lies  approximately  north  and  south. 
Ottar's  north  is  consequently  nearly  north-east. 

3  This  would  be,  according  to  the  number  of  days'  sail  given,  about  midway 
between  Malangen  and  the  North  Cape,  that  is,  about  Loppen. 

*  That  is  to  say,  made  a  bay  of  the  sea  into  the  land.  Ottar  has  now 
reached  the  North  Cape. 

s  This  was  at  the  entrance  to  the  White  Sea,  near  Sviatoi  Nos,  or  a  little 
farther  south-east.  If  Ottar  took  as  much  as  six  days  on  the  voyage  from 
Malangen  to  the  North  Cape,  but  only  four  from  the  North  Cape  to  the  en- 
trance to  the  White  Sea,  which  is  nearly  double  the  distance,  this  may  possi- 
bly be  explained  by  his  sailing  the  first  part  within  the  skerries,  among  islands, 
thus  making  the  distance  longer  and  stopping  oftener,  while  on  the  latter  part 
of  the  voyage,  where  there  are  no  islands,  he  may  have  sailed  much  faster 
with  open  sea  and  a  favorable  wind,  and  have  had  less  temptation  to  stop. 

171 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

and  for  the  sake  of  the  walruses,  for  they  have  much  valuable  bone  in  their 
tusks — some  such  tusks  he  brought  to  the  king — and  their  hide  is  very  good  for 
ship's  ropes.  This  whale  is  much  smaller  than  other  whales,  not  more  than 
seven  cubits  long;  but  in  his  own  country  is  the  best  whaling,  there  they  are 
forty-eight  cubits,  and  the  largest  fifty  cubits  long;  of  them  ('J'ara')  said  he, 
he  with  six  others  ('  syxa  sum ')  had  killed  sixty  in  two  days."  ^ 

Since  King  Alfred,  as  has  been  said,  must  have  written 
between  880  and  901,  Ottar  may  have  made  his  voyage  about 
870  to  890.  This  remarkable  man,  who  according  to  his  own 
statement  undertook  his  expedition  principally  from  desire  of 
knowledge,  is  the  second  northern  explorer  of  whom  we  have 
definite  information  in  history.  The  first  was  the  Greek 
Pytheas,  who  went  about  as  far  as  the  Arctic  Circle.  Some 
twelve  hundred  years  later  the  Norwegian  Ottar  continues  the 
exploration  farther  north  along  the  coasts  of  Norway  and  sails 
right  into  the  White  Sea.  He  thereby  determined  the  extent 
of  Scandinavia  on  the  north,  and  is  the  first  known  discoverer 
of  the  North  Cape,  the  Polar  Sea  (or  Barentz  Sea),  and  the 
White  Sea  ;  but  he  did  not  know  whether  the  latter  was  a 

1  The  most  reasonable  way  of  reading  this  last  much  contested  statement 
is  to  take  "  of  them  "  as  referring  to  the  walruses,  which  were  seven  cubits 
long,  and  to  understand  the  sentence  about  the  Norwegian  whales,  which  are 
larger,  as  an  inserted  parenthesis  [cf.  Japetus  Steenstrup,  1889] ;  for  it  is  im- 
possible that  six  men  could  kill  sixty  large  whales  in  two  days,  and  the  so- 
briety of  Ottar's  narrative  makes  it  very  improbable  that  he  made  boasts  of 
this  sort.  King  Alfred  evidently  did  not  grasp  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween walrus  and  whale.  Another  explanation  might  be  that  these  sixty  were 
a  school  of  a  smaller  species  of  whale,  which  were  caught  by  nets  in  a  fjord, 
so  that  King  Alfred  has  only  confused  their  size  with  that  of  the  larger  whales 
of  which  he  had  also  heard  Ottar  speak.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  save 
the  sense  by  proposing  that  instead  of  "  with  six  others "  we  should  read 
"  with  six  harpoons  "  ("  syx  asum  ")  or  "  with  six  ships  "  ("  syx  ascum  ") ;  but 
even  if  such  an  emendation  were  permissible,  it  does  not  make  the  statement 
more  credible.  What  should  Ottar  do  with  sixty  large  whales,  even  if  he  could 
catch  them?  It  must  have  been  the  blubber  and  the  flesh  that  he  wanted,  but 
he  and  his  men  could  not  deal  with  that  quantity  of  blubber  and  flesh  in  weeks, 
to  say  nothing  of  two  days.  Even  a  large  whaling  station  at  the  present  time, 
with  machinery  and  a  large  staff  of  workmen,  would  have  all  it  could  do  to 
deal  with  sixty  large  whales  ("  forty-eight "  or  "  fifty "  cubits  long)  before 
they  became  putrid,  if  they  were  all  caught  in  two  days. 
172 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

bay  of  the  ocean  or  not.  It  is  unlikely  that  Ottar  was  the 
first  Norwegian  to  discover  the  coasts  along  which  he  sailed. 
It  is  true  that  the  expressions  "  that  he  wished  to  find  out 
how  far  the  land  extended  due  north,  or  whether  any  man  dwelt 
to  the  north  of  the  uninhabited  tracts,"  might  be  taken  to  mean 
that  this  was  hitherto  unknown  to  the  Norwegians  ;  but  it 
should  doubtless  rather  be  understood  as  a  general  indication 
of  the  object  of  the  voyage:  this  was  of  interest  to  King  Alfred, 
but  not  whether  it  was  absolutely  the  first  voyage  of  discovery 
in  those  regions.  The  names  Terfinnas  and  Beormas  are  given 
as  something  already  known,  and  when  Ottar  reaches  the 
latter  he  understands  at  once  that  he  ought  not  to  proceed 
farther,  for  fear  of  trouble  ;  it  may  be  supposed  that  he  knew 
them  by  report  as  a  warlike  people.  A.  Bugge  [1908,  p.  409] 
quotes  K.  Rygh  to  the  effect  that  the  names  of  fjords  in  Fin- 
mark  must  be  very  ancient,  e.  g.,  those  that  end  in  "  -angr." 
This  termination  is  not  found  in  Iceland,  and  would  conse- 
quently be  older  than  the  Norwegian  colonization  of  that 
country;  nor  does  "angr"  (  =  fjord)  as  an  appellative  occur 
in  the  Old  Norse  literary  language.  It  may  therefore  be 
possible  that  these  names  are  older  than  Ottar.  Bugge 
also,  from  information  given  by  Herr  Qvigstad,  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  Lapps  call  Magaro  "  Makaravjo," 
and  a  place  on  Kvalo  (near  Hammerfest)  "  Rahkkeravjo."  The 
latter  part  of  these  names  must  be  the  primary  Germanic 
word  "  awjo "  for  island  or  land  near  the  shore.  Accord- 
ing to  this  the  Norsemen  must  have  been  as  far  north  as  this 
and  have  given  names  to  these  places,  while  this  form  of  the 
word  was  still  in  use,  and  the  Finns  or  Lapps  have  taken  it  from 
them. 

The  land  of  the  Terfinnas,  which  was  uninhabited,  is  the 
whole  Kola  peninsula.  Its  name  was  "Ter"  (or  "Turja"), 
whence  the  designation  Ter-Finns.  The  common  supposition 
that  the  river  Ottar  came  to  was  the  Dvina  cannot  be  recon- 
ciled with  Ottar's  narrative  given  above,  which  expressly 
states  that  he  followed  the  coast  round  the  peninsula  all  the 

^7Z 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

way,  "  and  there  was  always  open  sea  to  port."  ^  He  cannot, 
therefore,  have  left  the  land  and  sailed  straight  across  the  White 
Sea;  moreover  he  could  not  be  aware  that  there  was  land  on 
the  other  side  of  this  wide  bay  of  the  ocean.-  The  river  which 
"  went  up  into  the  land "  was  consequently  on  the  Kola  pen- 
insula, and  formed  the  boundary  between  the  unsettled  land  of 
the  Terfinnas  and  that  of  the  Beormas  with  fixed  habitation. 
The  river  may  have  been  the  Varzuga,  although  it  is  also  pos- 
sible that  Ottar  sailed  farther  west  along  the  southern  coast 
of  the  Kola  peninsula,  without  this  alteration  of  course  appear- 
ing in  Alfred's  description.  He  may  then  have  gone  as  far  as 
the  Kandalaks. 

What  kind  of  people  Ottar's  Beormas  ^  may  have  been  is 
uncertain.  We  only  hear  that  they  lived  in  the  country  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  that  their  country  was  well  settled  (i.e., 
was  permanently  inhabited  by  an  agricultural  population?),  that 
they  were  able  to  communicate  with  Ottar,  and  that  they  spoke 
almost  the  same  language  as  the  Finns.     The  description  may 

^  Cf.  G.  Storm,  1894,  p.  95.  S.  E.  Lonborg's  reasons  [1897,  P-  37]  for  re- 
jecting Storm's  view  and  maintaining  the  Dvina  as  the  river  in  question  have 
little  weight.  Lonborg  examines  the  statements  of  direction,  south,  north, 
etc.,  as  though  King  Alfred  and  Ottar  had  had  a  map  and  a  modern  compass 
before  them  during  the  description.  He  has  not  remarked  that  Ottar  has 
merely  confined  himself  to  the  chief  points  of  the  compass,  north,  east,  and 
south,  and  that  he  has  not  even  halved  them;  how  otherwise  should  we  explain 
for  instance,  that  he  sailed  "  due  north  along  the  coast "  from  Senjen  to  the 
North  Cape?  This  course  is  no  less  incorrect  than  his  sailing  due  south,  for 
example,  from  Sviatoi  Nos  to  the  Varzuga.  To  one  sailing  along  a  coast,  espe- 
cially if  it  is  unknown,  the  circumstance  that  one  is  following  the  land  is  far 
more  important  than  the  alterations  of  course  that  one  makes  owing  to  the 
sinuosities  of  the  coast.  The  statement  that  they  had  the  uninhabited  land 
to  starboard  all  the  way  is  consequently  not  to  be  got  over. 

2  His  own  words,  that  he  did  not  know  whether  the  land  (at  Sviatoi  Nos) 
turned  towards  the  south,  or  whether  the  sea  made  a  bay  into  the  land,  show 
also  that  Ottar  cannot  have  sailed  across  the  White  Sea  and  discovered  the 
land  on  the  other  side. 

2  Alfred's  word  "  Beormas "  is  perhaps  linguistically  of  the  same  origin 
as  "  Perm  "  or  "  Perem,"  which  the  Russians,  at  any  rate  in  later  times,  apply 
to  another  Finno-Ugrian  people,  the  Permians,  of  Kama  in  north  Russia  [cf. 
Storm,  1894,  p.  96]. 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

suit  the  East  Karels,  whom  we  find,  at  any  rate  somewhat  later, 
established  on  the  south  and  west  side  of  the  White  Sea,  as 
far  north  as  the  Kandalaks,  perhaps  also  as  far  as  the  Varzuga. 
If  this  is  correct,  we  must  suppose  that  Ottar's  Finns  and  Ter- 
finns  spoke  a  Finno-Ugrian  language,  very  like  Karelian.  As 
Ottar  knew  the  Finns  well,  his  statement  about  the  language 
deserves  consideration. 

This  view,  that  the  Beormas  were  Karels,  agrees  with  Egil 
Skallagrimsson's  Saga,  which  doubtless  was  put  into  writing 
much  later,  but  which  mentions  Ottar's  contemporary,  Thorolf 
Kveldulfsson,  and  his  expeditions  among  the  Finns  or  Lapps 
to  collect  the  Finnish  or  Lappish  tribute  (about  873  and  874). 
We  read  there  :  "  East  of  Namdal  lies  Jemtland,  and  then 
Helsingland,  and  then  Kvaenland,  and  then  Finland,  then  Kir- 
jalaland.  But  Finmark  lies  above  all  these  countries."  Kirjala- 
land  is  Karelia,  which  thus  lies  quite  in  the  east  upon  the 
White  Sea,  and  must  be  Ottar's  Bjarmeland  (Beormaland).  On 
his  Finnish  expedition  of  874  Thorolf  came  far  to  the  east,  and 
was  then  appealed  to  by  the  Kvaens  for  help  against  the 
Kirjals  (Karels),  who  were  ravaging  Kvasnland.  He  pro- 
ceeded northward  against  them  and  overcame  them  ;  returned 
to  Kvaenland,  went  thence  up  into  Finmark,  and  came  down 
from  the  mountains  in  Vefsen.  This  mention  of  the  ravages 
of  the  Kirjals  agrees  with  the  impression  of  Ottar's  Beor- 
mas, who  were  so  warlike  that  he  dared  not  pass  by  their 
country. 

Ottar's  account  of  himself  was  that 

he  was  a  very  rich  man  in  all  classes  of  property  of  which  their  wealth  [i.e., 
the  wealth  of  those  peoples]  consists,  that  is  in  wild  beasts  ("  wildrum "). 
He  had  further,  when  he  came  to  the  king,  six  hundred  tame,  unsold  animals. 
These  animals  they  called  reindeer.  There  were  six  decoy  reindeer  ("  stael 
hranas"),  which  are  very  dear  among  the  Finns,  for  with  them  they  catch 
the  wild  reindeer.  He  was  among  the  principal  men  in  that  country  [Haloga- 
land],  although  he  had  no  more  than  twenty  horned  cattle,  and  twenty  sheep, 
and  twenty  pigs;  and  the  little  ploughing  he  did  was  done  with  horses  [i.e., 
not  with  oxen,  as  among  the  Anglo-Saxons].  But  their  largest  revenue  is  the 
tribute  paid  them  by  the  Finns;  this  tribute  consists  of  pelts  and  birds'  feath- 
ers [down]  and  whalebone  [walrus  tusks],  and  they  gave  ships'  ropes  made  of 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

whales'  [walrus']  hide,  and  of  seals'.  Each  one  pays  according  to  his  rank; 
the  chiefs  have  to  pay  fifteen  martens'  skins,  five  reindeers'  skins,  one  bear's 
skin,  ten  ankers  of  feathers,  a  kirtle  of  bear-  or  otter-skin,  and  two  ship's 
ropes,  each  sixty  cubits  long,  one  made  of  whale's  [i.e.,  walrus']  hide,  and  the 
other  of  seal's. 

This  description  gives  a  valuable  picture  of  the  state  of 
society  in  northernmost  Norway  at  that  time.  Ottar's  Finns 
had  tame  and  half-tamed  reindeer,  and  their  hunting  even  of 
such  sea  beasts  as  walrus  and  seal  was  sufficiently  productive  to 
enable  them  to  pay  a  considerable  tribute.  These  early  inhabi- 
tants of  the  most  northerly  regions  of  the  old  world  will  be  treated 
of  later  in  a  separate  chapter. 

Ottar's  mention  of  walrus  hunting  is  of  great  interest,  as 
showing  that  it  was  regularly  carried  on  both  by  Norwegians 
and  Finns  even  at  that  time.  Of  about  the  same  period  (about 
the  year  900)  is  the  well-known  Anglo-Saxon  casket,  called 
the  Franks  Casket,  of  which  the  greater  part  is  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  one  side  being  in  Florence.  The  casket, 
which  on  account  of  its  rich  decoration  is  of  great  historical 
value,  is  made  of  walrus  ivory.  It  has  been  thought  that  it 
might  be  made  of  the  tusks  that  Ottar  brought  to  King  Alfred. 
If  this  was  so,  it  is  in  any  case  improbable  that  so  costly  a 
treasure  should  be  worked  in  a  material  the  value  and  suita- 
bility of  which  were  unknown.  We  must  therefore  suppose 
that  walrus  ivory  sometimes  found  its  way  at  that  time  to  this 
part  of  Europe,  and  it  could  come  from  no  other  people  but 
the  Norwegians.  They  certainly  carried  on  walrus  hunting 
long  before  Ottar's  time.  This  appears  also  from  his  narra- 
tive, for  men  who  were  not  well  practised  could  not  kill  sixty 
of  these  large  animals  in  a  couple  of  days,  even  if  we  are  to 
suppose  that  they  were  killed  with  lances  on  land  where  they 
lie  in  big  herds.  If  these  sixty  animals  were  really  whales 
(i.e.,  small  whales),  and  not  walruses,  it  is  still  more  certain 
evidence  of  long  practice.  We  see,  too,  that  walrus  ivory  and 
ships'  ropes  of  walrus  hide  had  become  such  valuable  objects 
of  commerce  as  to  be  demanded  in  tribute.  So  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous an  occupation  as  this  hunting,  which  requires  an  equip- 
176 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIAEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

merit  of  special  appliances,  does  not  arise  among  any  people  in 
a  short  time,  especially  at  so  remote  a  period  of  history,  when 
all  independent  development  of  a  new  civilization,  which  could 
not  come  from  outside,  proceeded  very  slowly.  It  is  therefore 
an  interesting  question  whether  the  Norwegians  developed  this 
walrus  hunting  themselves  or  learned  it  from  an  earlier  sea- 
faring people  of  hunters,  who  in  these  northern  regions  must 
consequently  have  been  Ottar's  Finns.  To  find  an  answer  to 
this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  review  the  whole  difficult  question  of 
the  Finns  and  Lapps  connectedly,  which  will  be  done  in  a  later 
section. 

The  walrus,  called  in  Norwegian  "  rosmal "  ^  or  "  rosmal " 
(also  "  rosmar,"  and  in  Old  Norse  "rostungr"),  is  an  arctic  ani- 
mal which  keeps  by  preference  to  those  parts  of  the  sea  where 
there  is  drift-ice,  at  any  rate  in  winter.  It  is  no  longer  found  in 
Norway,  but  probably  it  visited  the  coasts  of  Finmark  not  un- 
frequently  in  old  times,  to  judge  from  place-names  such  as  "  Ros- 
malvik  "  at  Loppen,  and  "  Rosmalen  "  by  Hammerfest.  Even 
in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  its  visits  to  the  north- 
ern coasts  of  the  country  were  frequent,  perhaps  annual  [cf. 
Lillienskiold,  1698].  But  as  these  places  were  certainly  the  ex- 
treme limit  of  its  distribution,  it  can  never  have  been  very 
numerous  here  ;  like  the  herds  of  seals  in  our  own  time,  it 
must  have  appeared  only  for  more  or  less  short  visits.  Curi- 
ously enough,  so  far  as  is  known,  walrus  bones  have  not  been 
observed  in  finds  below  ground  in  the  north,  while  bones  of 
other  arctic  animals,  such  as  the  ring-seal  (Pagomys  fcetidus),  are 
found. 

Since,  therefore,  the  walrus  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been 
common  on  the  northern  coasts  of  Norway  at  any  time  during 
the  historical  period,  and  since  its  hunting  gave  such  valuable 
products,  we  must  suppose  that  the  Norwegian  walrus-hunters 
were  not  long  in  looking  for  better  and  surer  hunting-grounds 
eastward  in  the  Polar  Sea,  where  there  is  plenty  of  walrus.     It 

'"  Rosmal"  comes  from  Old  Norse  "  rosm-hvalr  "  ^  horse-whale,  of  the 
same  meaning  therefore  as  "  hval-ross." 

177 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

was  there  too  that  Ottar  went,  for  this  very  reason  (probably 
because  there  was  not  enough  walrus  in  his  home  waters)  and, 
as  he  says,  to  find  out  how  far  the  land  extended  ;  but  it  is  also 
probable  that  walrus-hunters  had  been  in  these  waters  long  be- 
fore him.  It  is  true  that  the  statement  that  after  three  days' 
sail  from  home  he  "  was  as  far  north  as  the  farthest  point  reached 
by  whalers  "  ("  ('a  hwaelhuntan  firrest  farra['  ")  might  mean  that 
walrus  hunting  was  not  carried  on  farther  east  than  Loppen 
(where  there  is  still  a  "  Rosmalvik  "),  that  is,  if  by  these  whalers 
is  meant  walrus-hunters  ;  but  doubtless  these  expressions  are 
not  to  be  taken  so  literally,  and  perhaps  the  meaning  is  rather 
that  this  was  the  usual  limit  of  their  voyages.  Unfortunately, 
we  have  no  information  as  to  Ottar's  own  catch  on  the  eastward 
voyage. 

From  Ottar's  statement  that  "  in  his  own  country  there  is 
the  best  whaling,  they  are  forty-eight  cubits  long,  and  the  largest 
are  fifty  cubits  long  " — we  must  conclude  that  the  Norwegians, 
and  perhaps  the  Finns  also,  carried  on  a  regular  whaling  in- 
dustry, with  great  whales  as  well  as  small  (see  later,  chap, 
xii.). 

Of  Ottar's  statements  about  Norway  we  read  further  in 
King  Alfred : 

He  said  that  Nordmanna-Land  was  very  long  and  very  narrow.  All  that 
is  fitted  either  for  grazing  or  ploughing  lies  on  the  sea,  and  that,  however,  is 
in  some  places  very  rocky,  with  wilderness  [mountainous  waste]  rising  above 
the  cultivated  land  all  along  it.  In  the  wilderness  dwell  the  Finns.  And  the 
inhabited  land  is  broadest  eastward,  and  always  narrower  farther  north.  On 
the  east  it  may  be  sixty  leagues  broad,  or  a  little  broader;  and  midway  thirty 
or  more,  and  on  the  north,  he  said,  where  it  was  narrowest,  it  may  be  three 
leagues  to  the  waste  land;  and  the  wilderness  in  some  places  is  so  broad  that 
it  takes  two  weeks  to  cross  it;  and  in  others  so  broad  that  one  can  cross  it 
in  six  days. 

There  is  side  by  side  with  the  land  in  the  south,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
wilderness,  Sveoland,  extending  northwards,  and  side  by  side  with  the  land  in 
the  north,  Cwena  land.  The  Cwenas  sometimes  make  raids  upon  the  Norse- 
men over  the  wilderness,  sometimes  the  Norsemen  upon  them;  and  there  are 
very  great  freshwater  lakes  in  this  wilderness;  and  the  Cwenas  carry  their 
ships  overland  to  these  lakes,  and  from  thence  they  harry  the  Norsemen. 
They  have  very  small  ships  and  very  light. 
178 


AWAKENING   OF    MEDIEVAL   KNOWLEDGE 

Ottar  said  that  the  part  of  the  country  where  he  lived  was  called  Halgoland 
[Halogaland].  He  said  that  no  man  [i.e.,  no  Norseman]  lived  farther  north 
than  he.  Then  there  is  a  harbor  in  the  southern  part  of  that  country  which 
men  call  "  Scirniges  heale"  [Skiringssal  i  in  Vestfold].  Thither,  said  he,  one 
could  not  sail  in  a  month,  anchoring  at  night,  with  a  favorable  wind  every 
day;  and  all  the  while  he  must  sail  near  the  land,  and  to  starboard  of  him 
would  be  first  "  Iraland,"  -  and  then  the  islands  which  lie  between  Iraland  and 
this  country  [Britain?].  Afterwards  there  is  this  country  [to  starboard] 
until  he  comes  to  Sciringesheal;  and  all  the  way  on  the  port  side  there  is  Nor- 
way (NorBweg).^     South  of  Sciringesheal  a  very  great  sea  [the  Skagerak  and 


1  Sciringesheal  had  a  king's  house  and  a  well-known  temple;  it  may  have 
been  situated  on  the  Viksf  jord,  east  of  Larvik,  where  the  name  Kaupang  (i.e., 
"  kjopstad  "  =  market  town)  still  preserves  its  memory  [cf.  Munch,  1852,  pp. 
377,  380].  Possibly  the  name  may  be  connected  with  the  Germanic  tribe  of 
"  Skirer,"  who  are  mentioned  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  near  the  Ruger 
(or  Ryger).  Connected  with  Sciringesheal  was  a  kingdom  in  South  Jutland, 
with  the  port  of  "  Sliesthorp  "  (mentioned  by  Einhard  about  804),  "  Sliaswic  " 
[Ansgarii  Vita,  c.  24]  or  "  Slesvik,"  also  called  "  Heidaby."  It  is  possible 
that  Sciringesheal  may  have  been  originally  founded  by  Skirer  who  had  immi- 
grated from  South  Jutland  (?).  Another  hypothesis  has  been  put  forward  by 
S.  A.  Sorenson,  who  thinks  that  Sciringesheal  may  be  a  translation  into 
Norse  of  "  baptisterium  "  ("  skira  "  =  to  baptize) ;  and  that  the  place  was 
situated  near  Sandefjord.  In  that  case  we  should  look  for  a  church  rather 
than  a  heathen  temple,  and  we  should  have  to  suppose  that  attempts  had  been 
made  to  introduce  Christianity  even  before  Ottar's  time. 

2  Dr.  Ingram,  in  1807,  and  Rask  [1815,  p.  48]  propose  to  read  "Isaland" 
(i.e.,  Iceland,  which  was  discovered  by  the  Norsemen  just  at  this  time),  but 
this  does  not  improve  the  sense.  Besides  which,  the  form  "  Isaland  "  for  Ice- 
land is  not  known,  and  it  would  mean  the  land  of  "  ices  "  and  not  of  ice.  That 
the  true  Ireland  should  be  intended  would  seem  to  betray  greater  geographical 
ignorance  than  we  are  disposed  to  attribute  to  Ottar  or  Alfred.  Alfred  him- 
self mentions  "  Ibernia  "  or  "  Igbernia  "  (i.e.,  Ireland)  as  lying  west  of  Britain, 
and  says  that  "we  call  it  Scotland."  He  does  not  use  the  name  Ireland  else- 
where; but  here  he  is  quoting  Ottar,  and  the  latter  may  possibly  have  meant 
Scotland  (?)  [cf.  Langebek,  Porthan,  and  Forster],  which  was  colonized  by 
Irishmen,  although  it  would  then  be  difficult  to  understand  the  reference  which 
follows  to  islands  lying  "between  Iraland  and  this  country"  (i.e.,  Britain). 
Meanwhile  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  not  unusual  at  that  time  to 
place  Ireland  to  the  north  of  Britain  (cf.  later  Adam  of  Bremen),  and  there 
may  here  be  a  confusion  of  this  sort.  The  simplest  supposition  would  be  to 
take  "Iraland"  for  Shetland;  but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  islands 
could  have  received  such  a  designation. 

^  So  far  as  I  can  discover  this  is  the  first  time  this  name  for  Norway  occurs 

179 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


Cattegat]  goes  up  into  the  land;  it  is  broader  than  any  man  can  see  across; 
and  "Gotland"  [Jutland]  is  on  the  opposite  side,  and  then  "  Sill?nde."  i 
This  sea  goes  many  hundred  leagues  up  into  the  land. 

And  from  Sciringesheal  he  said  that  it  was  five  days'  sail  to  the  harbor 
which  is  called  "  Haef  um  "  [Heidaby  or  Sleswick] ;  it  lies  between  the  Wends 
and  the  Saxons  and  the  Angles,  and  belongs  to  the  Danes.  When  he  sailed 
thither  from  Sciringesheal,  he  had  on  the  port  side  Denmark  =  [i.e.,  southern 
Sweden,  which  then  belonged  to  Denmark],  and  on  the  starboard  open  sea  for 
three  days;  and  for  the  two  days  before  he  came  to  Heidaby  he  had  to  star- 
board Gotland  and  Sill?nde,  and  many  islands.  In  those  countries  dwelt  the 
Angles  before  they  came  to  this  land.  And  for  these  two  days  he  had  on  the 
port  side  the  islands  which  belong  to  Denmark. 

This  account  of  Ottar's  of  his  southward  voyage  is  remark- 
able for  the  same  sober  lucidity  as  his  narrative  of  the  White 

Sea  expedition  ;  and  as,  on  all 
the  points  where  comparison  is 
possible,  it  agrees  well  with 
other  independent  statements, 
it  furnishes  strong  evidence  of 
his  credibility. 

Alfred  next  gives  a  descrip- 
tion of  Wulfstan's  (  =  Ulf- 
sten's)  voyage  from  Heidaby 
eastward  through  the  southern 
Baltic  to  Prussia,  with  refer- 
ences to  Langeland,  Laaland, 
Falster  and  Skane  ("Sconeg"), 
which  all  belonged  to  Den- 
mark and  lay  to  port.  After 
them  came  on  the  same  side  Bornholm  ("  Burgenda  land"), 
which  had  its  own  king,  then  Blekinge,  "  Meore,"  Oland  and 
Gotland,  and  these  countries  belonged  to  Sweden  ("Sweom"). 
To   starboard   he   had   the   whole   way   Wendland    ("  Weonod- 


Anglo-Saxon  Map  of  the  World, 

"  Cottoniana,"     perhaps     of     the 

eleventh      century       [from       K. 

Miller] 


in  literature.     Lonborg  [1897,  p.  142]  is  consequently  incorrect  in  saying  that 
the  name  "  Norvegia  "  first  occurs  in  the  eleventh  century. 

1  Einhard  calls  it  "  Sinlendi,"  and  it  was  a  part  of  South  Jutland  or  Sles- 
wick  [cf.  Munch,  1852,  p.  378]. 

- "  D?nemearc  "  is  mentioned  by  Alfred  for  the  first  time  in  literature. 
180 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

land "  =  Mecklenburg  and  Pomerania)  as  far  as  the  mouths 
of  the  Vistula  ("  WislemuSan ").  Then  follows  a  description 
of  "  Estm^re  "  (Frisches  Ha£f),  Esthonia,  which  was  approxi- 
mately East  Prussia,  and  the  Esthonians.  Henceforward  we 
can  count  these  parts  of  Europe  as  belonging  to  the  known 
world. 

In  the  old  German  poem  "  Meregarto,"  which  is  a  sort  of 
description  of  the  earth  and  probably  dates  from  the  latter  half 
of  the  eleventh  century  [Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  1892,  ii.  p. 
196],  we  find  the  following  remarkable  statements  about  the 
"  Liver  sea  "  and  about  Iceland  :  ^ 

There  is  a  clotted  sea  in  the  western  ocean. 

When  the  strong  wind  drives  ships  upon  that  course, 

Then  the  skilled  seamen  have  no  defense  against  it. 

But  they  must  go  into  the  very  bosom  of  the  sea. 

Alas!   Alas! 

They  never  come  out  again. 

If  God  will  not  deliver  them,  they  must  rot  there. 

I  was  in  Utrecht  as  a  fugitive. 

For  we  had  two  bishops,  who  did  us  much  harm. 

Since  I  could  not  remain  at  home,  I  lived  my  life  in  exile. 

When  I   came  to  Utrecht,  I  found  a  good  man, 

The  very  good  Reginpreht,  he  delighted  in  doing  all  that  was  good. 

He  was  a  wise  man,  so  that  he  pleased  God, 

A  pious  priest,  of  perfect  goodness. 

He  told  me  truly,  as  many  more  there  [also  said]. 

He  had  sailed  to  Iceland — there  he  found  much  wealth — 

With  meal  and  with  wine  and  with  alder-wood. 

This  they  buy  for  fires,  for  wood  is  dear  with  them. 

There  is  abundance  of  all  that  belongs  to  provisions  and  to  sport  [pleasure] 

Except  that  there  the  sun  does  not  shine — they  lack  that  delight — 

Thereby  the  ice  there  becomes  so  hard  a  crystal, 

That  they  make  a  fire  above  it,  till  the  crystal  glows. 

Therewith  they  cook  their  food,  and  warm  their  rooms. 

There  a  bundle  of  alder-wood  is  given  [sold]  for  a  penny. 

We  find  in  this  poem  the  same  idea  of  a  curdled  or  clotted 
sea — here  probably  in  the  north-west  near  Iceland — as  appeared 
early  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  perhaps  even  among  the 

'  Professor  Alf  Torp  has  kindly  given  me  a  [Norwegian]  translation  of  the 
poem. 

181 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Carthaginians  and  Phoenicians  (see  pp.  40,  66,  f.).*  It  is  pos- 
sible that  it  may  have  found  its  way  into  this  poem  by  purely 
literary  channels  from  classical  authors  ;  but  the  description 
seems  to  bear  traces  of  more  life,  and  it  rather  points  to  a  legend 
which  lived  in  popular  tradition. 

In  this  poem  and  in  Adam  of  Bremen  Iceland  is  mentioned 
for  the  first  time  in  literature,-  in  both  works  as  a  country  that 
was  known,  but  of  which  strange  things  were  told,  which  is 
natural  enough,  since  it  lay  near  the  borders  of  the  unknown. 
The  pious  Reginbrecht  may  have  travelled  to  Iceland  as  a  mis- 
sionary or  clerical  emissary,  which  would  not  be  unnatural,  as 
the  country  was  under  the  archbishopric  of  Hamburg.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  surprising  that  people  as  early  as  that  time 
sailed  thither  from  Germany  with  meal,  wine,  and  wood.  But 
as  these  articles  must  have  been  precisely  those  which  would 

1  It  may  be  of  interest  in  this  connection  to  remind  the  reader  that  Plutarch 
["  De  facie  in  orbe  Lunae,"  941]  mentions  that  the  island  of  Ogygia  lay  five 
days'  sail  west  of  Britain,  and  that  upon  one  of  the  islands  in  the  north-west 
lay  Cronos  imprisoned  (cf.  above,  p.  156),  for  which  reason  the  sea  was  called 
Cronium.  According  to  the  statements  of  the  barbarians  "  the  great  continent 
[i.e.,  that  which  lies  beyond  the  ocean,  cf.  above  p.  16]  by  which  the  great 
ocean  is  enclosed  in  a  circle  "  lies  nearer  to  these  islands,  "  but  from  Ogygia 
it  is  about  five  thousand  stadia  when  one  travels  with  rowing-boats;  for  the 
sea  is  heavy  to  pass  through,  and  muddy  on  account  of  the  many  currents;  but 
the  great  land  sends  out  the  streams  and  they  stir  up  the  mud,  and  the  sea  is 
heavy  and  earthy,  for  which  reason  it  is  held  to  be  curdled."  These  are 
similar  conceptions  to  those  we  have  already  found  in  Aristotle's  Meteorologica 
(cf.  above,  p.  41)  and  Plutarch  is  also  inclined  to  place  this  sluggish  sea 
towards  the  north-west.  Moreover,  it  seems  as  though  the  ancients  imagined 
the  stiffened  sea  (usually  in  connection  with  darkness)  everywhere  on  the  outer 
limits  of  the  world.  Curtius  (of  the  time  of  Augustus)  in  a  speech  makes 
Alexander's  soldiers  (when  they  try  to  force  him  to  turn  back)  use  such  expres- 
sions as  that  this  leads  to  nowhere,  all  was  covered  with  darkness  eind  a 
motionless  sea,  and  dying  nature  disappears.  Similar  conceptions  of  a  curdled 
and  stinking  sea  and  an  ocean  of  darkness  near  the  outer  limits  of  the  world 
are  also  found  in  Arabic  literature  [cf.  Edrisi,  1154  A.D.]. 

-  On  maps  the  name  possibly  appears  earlier.  On  an  English  map  of  the 
■world  (Cottoniana),  possibly  of  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  (992-994),  there 
is  an  "  Island  "  (see  p.  183) ;  but  the  possibility  is  not  excluded  that  the  exist- 
ing copy  of  this  map  may  be  later,  and  may  have  taken  some  names  from 
Adam  of  Bremen  [cf.  K.  Miller,  iii.  1895,  p.  37]. 
182 


AWAKENING   OF    MEDIEVAL   KNOWLEDGE 

be  valuable  in  Iceland,  with  its  lack  of  corn  and  poverty  in  trees, 
it  points  to  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  does  not  seem  improb- 
able. That  there  should  be  great  wealth  there  does  not  agree 
with  Adam's  description,  which  tends  in  the  contrary  direction  ; 


Europe  on  the  Anglo-Saxon  Map  of  the  World,  "  Cottoniana  " 
(eleventh  century?) 

but  as  immediately  afterwards  abundance  of  provisions  is 
spoken  of,  it  is  probable  that  the  rich  fisheries  were  meant,  and 
perhaps  the  breeding  of  sheep,  which  was  already  developed  at 
that  time. 

The  strange  idea  that  the  ice  becomes  so  hard  that  it  can 
be  made  to  glow,  which  occurs  again  in  another  form  in  Adam 
of  Bremen,  is  difficult  to  understand.  Can  it  have  arisen,  as 
Professor  Torp  has  proposed  to  me,  from  a  misunderstanding 

183 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

of  statements  that  the  Icelanders  heated  stones  for  their  baths? 
In  some  parts  of  Norway  red-hot  stones  are  also  used  for  heat- 
ing water  for  brewing  and  cooking  [cf.  A.  Helland :  Hedemarkens 
Amt].  Perhaps  tales  of  their  sometimes  using  melted  ice  for 
drinking-water  may  also  have  contributed  to  the  legend  (?).  In 
any  case,  as  Adam's  account  shows  still  better,  diverse  state- 
ments about  ice,  fire  (volcanoes),  and  steam  (boiling  springs?), 
etc.,  may  have  been  confused  to  form  these  legends  about  the 
ice  in  Iceland. 

The  first  author  after  King  Alfred  to  make  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  of  the  North  is  Adam  of  Bremen,  who  not 
only  gives  much  information  about  the  Scandinavian  North  and 
its  people,  but  mentions  Iceland,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
literature  also  Greenland  and  even  Wineland,  as  distant  islands 
in  the  great  ocean.  Of  the  life  of  the  learned  magister  Adam 
we  know  little  more  than  that  he  came  to  Bremen  about  1067 
and  became  director  of  the  cathedral  school,  and  that  he  spent 
some  time  at  the  court  of  the  enlightened  Danish  king  Svein 
Estridsson.  This  king,  who  had  spent  twelve  years  campaign- 
ing in  Sweden,  "  knew  the  history  of  the  barbarians  by  heart,  as 
though  it  had  been  written  down,"  and  from  him  and  his  men 
Adam  collected  information  about  the  countries  and  peoples  of 
the  North.  On  his  return  to  Bremen  he  wrote  his  well-known 
history  of  the  Church  in  the  North  under  the  archbishopric  of 
Bremen  and  Hamburg  ("  Gesta  Hammaburgensis,"  etc.),  which 
in  great  part  seems  to  have  been  completed  before  the  death 
of  Svein  Estridsson  in  1076.  In  the  fourth  book  of  this  work  is 
a  "  description  of  the  islands  [i.e.,  countries  and  islands]  in  the 
North"  ("  Descriptio  insularum  aquilonis").  Adam's  most 
important  literary  geographical  sources  seem  to  have  been  the 
following:  besides  the  Bible,  Cicero  and  Sallust,  he  has 
used  Orosius,  Martianus  Capella,  Solinus,  Macrobius  and 
Bede  ;  he  was  also  acquainted  with  Paulus  Warnefridi's  his- 
tory of  the  Langobards,  and  probably  Hrabanus  Maurus,  pos- 
sibly also  with  some  of  Isidore.  In  the  archiepiscopal  archives 
he  was  able  to  collect  valuable  materials  from  the  mis- 
184 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

sions  to  heathens  in  the  North,  and  to  these  was  added 
the  verbal  information  he  had  obtained  at  the  Danish 
court, 

Adam's  work  has  thus  become  one  of  the  most  important 
sources  of  the  oldest  history  of  the  north.  It  would  carry  us 
too  far  here  to  go  into  this  side  of  it,  and  we  shall  confine  our- 
selves for  the  most  part  to  his  geographical  and  ethnographical 
statements. 

He  describes  Jutland,  the  Danish  islands,  and  other  coun- 
tries and  people  on  the  Baltic.  This  too  he  calls  [iv.  lo]  the 
Baltic  Sea,  "  because  it  extends  in  the  form  of  a  belt  ('  baltei  ')^ 
along  through  the  Scythian  regions  as  far  as  '  Grecia  '  [here 
=  Russia].  It  is  also  called  the  Barbarian  or  Scythian  Sea." 
He  quotes  Einhard's  description  of  the  Baltic,  and  regards  it 
as  a  gulf  ("sinus"),  which,  in  the  direction  of  west  to  east, 
issues  from  the  Western  Ocean.  The  length  of  the  gulf  [east- 
wards]  was  according  to  Einhard  unknown.     This,  he  says, 

has  recently  been  confirmed  by  the  efforts  of  two  brave  men,  namely  Ganuz 
[also  Ganund]  Wolf,  Earl  (satrapae)  of  the  Danes,  and  Harald  [Hardrade], 
King  of  the  Norwegians,  who,  in  order  to  explore  the  extent  of  this  sea,  made 
a  long  and  toilsome  voyage,  perilous  to  those  who  accompanied  them,  from 
which  they  returned  at  length  without  having  accomplished  their  object,  and 
with  double  loss  on  account  of  storms  and  pirates.  ,  Nevertheless  the  Danes 
assert  that  the  length  of  this  sea  (ponti)  has  frequently  been  explored  and  by 
many  different  travellers,  and  even  that  there  are  men  who  have  sailed  with  a 
favorable  wind  from  Denmark  to  Ostrogard  in  Ru2zia. 

It  therefore  looks  as  if  Adam  had  understood  that  Scan- 
dinavia was  connected  with  the  continent,  which  also  appears 
from  his  words  [iv.  15]  : 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  these  regions  also  declare  that  some  have 
reached  as  far  as  Graecia  [i.e.,  Russia]  by  land  from  Sueonia  [Sweden].  But 
the  barbarous  people,  who  live  in  the  intervening  parts,  are  a  hindrance  to  this 
journey,  wherefore  they  rather  attempt  this  dangerous  route  by  sea. 

1  This  name  appears  here  for  the  first  time  in  literature  (cf.  "  Balcia  "  in 
Pliny,  pp.  71,  99,  above).  It  has  also  been  sought  to  derive  it  from  the  Old 
Prussian  (Lettish  and  Lithuanian)  "  baltas,"  white;  it  would  then  mean 
the  white  sea,  and  the  name  would  be  due  to  the  sandy  coasts  of  the  south-east 
[cf.  Schafarik,  Slav.  Alt.,  i.  pp.  451  ff.]. 

i8s 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

But  he  nevertheless  speaks  of  the  countries  of  the  North  as 
islands,  and  he  seems  to  draw  no  sharp  distinction  between  island 
and  peninsula.  Kurland  and  Esthonia  he  seems  to  regard  as 
true  islands. 

The  entrance  to  the  Baltic,  he  says  [iv.  ii],  "between  Aalborg,  a  headland 


OCCCANUS  CAaaANivtLj>IC£/li 


<  I  I  I  i  I  1  t  I  I  a 


Adam  of  Bremen's  geographical  idea  of  the  countries  and  islands 
of  the  North,  as  represented  by  A.  A.  Bjornbo  [1910] 

of  Denmark  [i.e.,  the  Skaw],  and  the  skerries  of  Nortmannia  [Norway]  is  so 
narrow  that  boats  easily  sail  across  it  in  one  night." 

There  are  in  the  Baltic  [iv.  19]  "  many  other  islands,  all  full  of  savage 
barbarians,  and  therefore  they  are  shunned  by  sailors.  On  the  shores  of  the 
Baltic  Sea  the  Amazons  are  also  said  to  live  in  the  country  which  is  now  called 
the  Land  of  Women  ('  terra  feminarum')." 

This  designation  is  a  translation  of  the  name  "  Kvasnland," 
which  was  thought  to  be  formed  of  the  Old  Norse  word  for 
woman:  "  kvasn "  or  "  kvan "  (chiefly  in  the  sense  of  wife; 
modern  English  "  queen  ")  ;  and  it  is  very  possible  that  the  name 
was  really  derived  from  this,  and  not  from  the  Finnish  "  Kainu- 
186 


AWAKENING   OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

laiset."  We  have  seen  that  Alfred  called  it  in  Anglo-Saxon 
"  Cwen-Land "  or  "  Cwena-Land,"  which  also  means  woman- 
land.  Here  it  is  probably  Southern  Finland.  Adam  probably 
took  the  idea  from  earlier  authors.^  To  him  this  name  is  a 
realization  of  the  Greeks'  Amazons,  who  have  been  moved  north- 
ward to  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  just  as  the  Scandinavians  become 
Hyperboreans.  In  this  way  ancient  geographical  myths  come 
to  life  again  and  acquire  new  local  color.  Of  these  Amazons, 
he  says: 

some  assert  that  they  conceive  by  drinking  water.  Others  however  say  that 
they  become  pregnant  through  intercourse  with  seafaring  merchants,  or 
with  their  own  prisoners,  or  with  other  monsters,  which  are  not  rare  in  those 
parts;  and  this  appears  to  us  more  credible.-  If  their  offspring  are  of  the 
male  sex,  they  are  Cynocephali,  but  if  of  the  female,  beautiful  women.  These 
women  live  together  and  despise  fellowship  with  men,  whom  indeed  they 
repulse  in  manly  fashion,  if  they  come.  Cynocephali  are  those  who  have 
their  head  in  their  breast;  in  Russia  they  are  often  to  be  seen  as  prisoners,  and 
their  speech  is  a  mixture  of  talking  and  barking. 

It   has   already   been   mentioned    (p.    154)    that   the   Greek 
writer  ^thicus  had  already  placed  the  Cynocephali  on  an  island 

1  We  may  compare  with  this  the  tale  of  the  Arabi  author  Qazwini,  of  the 
thirteenth  century  [cf.  G.  Jacob,  1896,  pp.  9,  37]:  "The  City  of  Women  is  a 
great  city  with  a  wide  territory  on  an  island  in  the  western  ocean.  At-Tartushi 
says:  its  inhabitants  are  women,  over  whom  men  have  no  authority.  They 
ride  horses,  and  themselves  wage  war.  They  show  great  bravery  in  conflict. 
They  have  also  slaves.  Every  slave  in  turn  visits  his  mistress  at  night,  re- 
mains with  her  all  night,  rises  at  dawn,  and  goes  out  secretly  at  daybreak.  If 
then  one  of  them  gives  birth  to  a  boy  she  kills  him  on  the  spot;  but  if  a  girl 
she  lets  her  live.  At-Tartushi  says:  the  City  of  Women  is  a  fact,  of  which 
there  is  no  doubt."  This,  as  we  see,  is  an  adaptation  of  the  Greek  legend  of 
the  Amazons,  and  of  the  Scythian  women  who  had  children  by  their  slaves 
[cf.  Herodotus,  vi.  i].  As  a  similar  story  of  the  City  of  Women,  "west  of 
the  Russians,"  is  attributed  to  the  Jew  Ibrahim  ibn  Ja  'qflb  (of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury), which  he  says  he  had  from  the  Emperor  Otto  (the  Great),  it  probably 
dates  from  the  tenth  century.  Jacob  thinks  the  legend  here  was  due  to  the 
name  of  Magdeburg,  which  was  translated  "  civitas  virginum";  but  as  the 
women  lived  in  an  island  in  the  ocean  it  is  more  probable  that  it  may  be 
derived  from  Kvaenland.  Similar  legends  seem  to  have  been  common  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  occur  in  many  authors.  (Cf.  Paulus  Warnefridi,  above 
p.  160).  Isidore  is  said  to  have  made  Sweden  the  original  home  of  the 
Amazons. 

=  Cf.  Plutarch,  Thes  26;  Strabo,  xi.  504;  and  others. 

187 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

north  of  Germania.  The  revival  of  the  Greek-Indian  fable  of 
dog-headed  men  seems,  on  the  one  hand,  to  be  due  to  Greeks 
who  had  understood  the  v^rord  "  Kvaen  "  as  Greek  't"""  (dog), 
and  either  through  ^thicus  or  some  other  channel  the  idea  thus 
formed  must  have  reached  Adam.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
notion  of  them  as  prisoners  in  Russia  may  be  due  to  Germanic- 
speaking  peoples,  who  misinterpreted  the  national  name  "  Huns," 
which  was  used  both  for  Magyars  and  Slavs,  and  have  taken  it 
to  mean  Hund  (dog).^  But  Adam  himself  did  not  understand  the 
Greek  name's  meaning  of  dog-heads,  and  confuses  it  with  another 
fable  of  men  with  heads  in  their  breasts  [cf.  Rymbegla,  1780,  p. 
350;  Hauksbok,  1892,  p.  167].  Of  the  Scandinavians  Adam 
says  [iv.  12] : 

The  Dani  and  Sueones  and  the  other  peoples  beyond  Dania  are  all  called 
by  the  Prankish  historians  Normans  ("  Nortmanni "),  whilst  however  the 
Romans  similarly  call  them  Hyperboreans,  of  whom  Martianus  Capella  speaks 
with  much  praise. 

It  does  not  seem  as  though  Adam  made  any  distinction 
between  the  names  Norman  and  Norseman. 

[iv.  21.]  When  one  has  passed  beyond  the  islands  of  the  Danes  a  new 
world  opens  in  Sueonia  [Sweden]  and  Nordmannia  [Norway],  which  are  two 
kingdoms  of  wide  extent  in  the  north,  and  hitherto  almost  unknown  to  our 
world.  Of  them  the  learned  king  of  the  Danes  told  me  that  Nordmannia  can 
scarcely  be  traversed  in  a  month,  and  Sueonia  not  easily  in  two.  This,  said  he, 
I  know  from  my  own  experience,  since  I  have  lately  served  for  twelve  years 
in  war  under  King  Jacob  in  those  regions,  which  are  both  enclosed  by  high 
mountains,  especially  Nordmannia,  which  with  its  Alps  encircles  Sueonia. 

Sweden  he  describes  as  a  fertile  land,  rich  in  crops  and 
honey,  and  surpassing  any  other  country  in  the  rearing  of 
cattle : 

"  it  is  most  favored  with  rivers  and  forests,  and  the  whole  land  is  every- 
where full  of  foreign  [i.e.,  rare?]  merchandise."  The  Swedes  were  therefore 
well-to-do,  but  did  not  care  for  riches.  "  Only  in  connection  with  women  they 
know  no  moderation.     Each   one  according  to  his  means  has  two,  three,  or 

1  Adam's  statement  (immediately  afterwards  in  the  same  section)  that  the 
land  of  the  Alani  or  Wizzi  was  defended  by  an  army  of  dogs,  must  be  due  to  a 
similar  misinterpretation  of  the  name  "  Huns." 

188 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 


more  at  the  same  time;  the  rich  and  the  chiefs  have  them  without  number. 
For  they  count  also  as  legitimate  the  sons  which  are  born  of  such  a  connec- 
tion. But  it  is  punished  with  death,  if  any  one  has  had  intercourse  with  an- 
other man's  wife,  or  violated  a  virgin,  or  robbed  another  of  his  goods  or  done 
him  wrong.  Even  if  all  the  Hyperboreans  are  remarkable  for  hospitality,  our 
Sueones  are  pre-eminent:  with  them  it  is  worse  than  any  disgrace  to  deny  a 
wayfarer  shelter,"  etc. 

[iv.  22.]  "Many  are  the  tribes  of  the  Sueones;  they  are  remarkable  for 
strength  and  the  use  of  arms,  in  war  they  excel  equally  on  horseback  and  in 
ships." 

Adam  relates  much  about  these  people,  their  customs,  re- 
ligion, and  so  forth: 

[iv.  24.]     "Between   Nordmannia   and   Sueonia   dwell   the    Wermelani   and 
Finnedi   (or  '  Finvedi ')    and  others,  who  are  now  all  Christians   and  belong 
to    the    church    at    Skara.     In    the    borderland 
of    the    Sueones    or    Nordmanni    on    the    north    (^ 
live  the  Scritefini,  who  are  said  to  outrun  the 
wild    beasts    in    their    running.     Their    greatest 
town    ['  civitas,'    properly    community]    is    Hal- 
singland,    to   which    Stenphi    was   first    sent   as 
bishop    by    the    archbishop.  .  .  .  He    converted 
many   of    the    same   people   by   his   preaching." 
Helsingland  was  inhabited  by  Helsingers,  who 
were  certainly  Germanic  Scandinavians  and  not 
Skridfinns;   but   Adam   seems   to    have   thought 
that    all    the    people    of    northern    Sueonia    or 
Suedia    (he   has   both   forms)    belonged   to    the     $-^^^f^^^^ 
latter  race. 

"  On   the  east  it   [i.e.,   Sweden]   touches  the  Unioed 

Riphaean  Mountains,  where  there  are  immense  (fro^  the  Hereford  map), 
waste  tracts  with  very  deep  snow,  where  hordes 

of  monstrous  human  beings  further  hinder  the  approach.  There  are  the 
Amazons,  there  are  the  Cynocephali,  and  there  the  Cyclops,  who  have  one 
eye  in  their  forehead.  There  are  those  whom  Solinus  calls  '  Ymantopodes ' 
[One-footed  men],  who  hop  upon  one  leg,  and  those  who  delight  in  human 
flesh  for  food,  and  just  as  one  avoids  them,  so  is  one  rightly  silent  about  them.i 
The  very  estimable  king  of  the  Danes  told  me  that  a  people  were  wont  to  come 
down  from  the  mountains  into  the  plains;  they  were  of  moderate  height,  but 
the  Swedes  were  scarcely  a  match  for  them  on  account  of  their  strength  and 


1  This  passage  is  undoubtedly  taken  from  Solinus,  and  we  see  how  Magister 
Adam  confuses  together  what  he  has  heard  and  what  he  finds  in  classical 
authors. 


189 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 


activity,  and  it  is  uncertain  from  whence  they  come.  They  come  suddenly,  he 
said,  sometimes  once  a  year  or  every  third  year,  and  if  they  are  not  resisted 
with  all  force  they  devastate  the  whole  district,  and  go  back  again.  Many 
other  things  are  usually  related,  which  I,  since  I  study  brevity,  have  omitted, 
so  that  they  may  tell  them  who  assert  that  they  have  seen  them." 

It  is  probably  the  roving  Mountain  Lapps  that  are  here 
described.  Descending  suddenly  into  the  plains  with  their 
herds  of  reindeer,  they  must  then,  as  now,  have  done  great 
damage  to  the  peasants'  crops  and  pastures;  and  the  peasants 

were    certainly    not    content    with 

"^^  ^yr  killing  the  reindeer,  as  they  some- 

<^^^~^K^  ^1  times  do  still,  but  also  attacked  the 

Lapps  themselves.  Although  the 
latter  are  not  a  warlike  people,  they 
were  forced  to  defend  themselves, 
and  that  the  Swedes  and  Nor- 
wegians are  scarcely  a  match  for 
them  in  strength  and  activity  may 
be  true  even  now. 


Cannibals  in  Eastern  Europe 
(from  the  Hereford  map) 


[iv.  30.]  "Nortmannia  [Norway],  as  it  is  the  extreme  province  of  the 
earth,  may  also  be  suitably  placed  last  in  our  book.  It  is  called  by  the  people 
of  the  present  day  '  Norguegia '  [or  '  Nordvegia ']  .  .  .  This  kingdom  extends 
to  the  extreme  region  of  the  North,  whence  it  has  its  name."  From  "  project- 
ing headlands  in  the  Baltic  Sound  it  bends  its  back  northwards,  and  after  it 
has  gone  in  a  bow  along  the  border  of  the  foaming  ocean,  it  finds  its  limit  in 
the  Riphean  Mountains,  where  also  the  circle  of  the  earth  is  tired  and  leaves 
off.  Nortmannia  is  on  account  of  its  stony  mountains  or  its  immoderate  cold 
the  most  unfertile  of  all  regions,  and  only  suited  to  rearing  cattle.  The  cattle 
are  kept  a  long  time  in  the  waste  lands,  after  the  manner  of  the  Arabs.  They 
live  on  their  herds,  using  their  milk  for  food  and  their  wool  for  clothes.  Thus 
the  country  rears  very  brave  warriors,  who,  not  being  softened  by  any  super- 
fluity in  the  products  of  their  country,  more  often  attack  others  than  are  them- 
selves disturbed.  They  live  at  peace  with  their  neighbors,  namely  the  Sveones, 
although  they  are  sometimes  raided,  but  not  with  impunity,  by  the  Danes,  who 
are  equally  poor.  Consequently,  forced  by  their  lack  of  possessions,  they 
wander  over  the  whole  world  and  by  their  piratical  expeditions  bring  home 
the  greater  part  of  the  wealth  of  the  countries."  But  after  their  conversion 
to  Christianity  they  improved,  and  they  are  "  the  most  temperate  of  all  men 
both  in  their  diet  and  their  morals."  They  are  very  pious,  and  the  priests 
turn  this  to  account  and  fleece  them.  "  Thus  the  purity  of  morals  is  destroyed 
solely  through  the  avarice  of  the  clergy. 
190 


AWAKENING   OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 


"  In  many  parts  of  Nordmannia  and  Suedia  people  even  of  the  highest  rank 
are  herdsmen/  Hving  in  the  style  of  the  patriarchs  and  by  the  labor  of  their 
hands.  But  all  who  dwell  in  Norvegia  are  very  Christian,  with  the  exception 
of  those  who  live  farther  north  along  the  coast  of  the  ocean  [i.e.,  in  Finmark]. 
It  is  said  they  are  still  so  powerful  in  their  arts  of  sorcery  and  incantations, 
that  they  claim  to  know  what  is  done  by  every  single  person  throughout  the 
world.  In  addition  to  this  they  attract  whales  to  the  shore  by  loud  mumbling 
of  words,  and  many  other  things  which  are  told  in  books  of  the  sorcerers,  and 
which  are  all  easy  for  them  by  practice.-  On  the  wildest  alps  of  that  part  I 
heard  that  there  are  women  with  beards,^  but  the  men  who  live  in  the  forests 
[i.e.,  the  waste  tracts?]  seldom  allow  themselves  to  be  seen.  The  latter  use 
the  skins  of  wild  beasts  for  clothes,  and  when  they  speak  to  one  another  it  is 
said  to  be  more  like  gnashing  of  teeth  than  words,  so  that  they  can  scarcely 
be  understood  by  their  neighbors.* 
The  same  mountainous  tracts  are 
called  by  the  Roman  authors  the 
Riphean  Mountains,  which  are 
terrible  with  eternal  snow.  The 
Scritefingi  [Skridfinns]  cannot  live 
away  from  the  cold  of  the  snow, 
and  they  outrun  the  wild  beasts 
in  their  chase  across  the  very  deep 
snowfields.  In  the  same  mountains 
there  is  so  great  abundance  of 
wild  animals  that  the  greater  part 
of  the  district  lives  on  game  alone. 

They  catch  there  uri  [=  aurochs;     ^lles  (elk)  and  Urus  (aurochs)  in  Russia 
perhaps     rather     'ursi' =  bears?].  (from  the  Ebstorf  map,  1284) 

bubali  [antelopes  =  reindeer?]  and  elaces  [elks]  as  in  Sueonia;  but  in  Sclavonia 
and  Ruzzia  bisons  are  taken;  only  Nortmannia  however  has  black  foxes  and 
hares,  and  white  martens  and  bears  of  the  same  color,  which  live  under 
water  like  uri   (?)  ^  but  as  many  things  here   seem  altogether  different  and 


1  It  seems  very  probable,  as  Mr.  F.  Schiern  [1873,  s.  13]  suggests,  that  this 
conception  of  even  the  noblest  men  (nobilissimi  homines)  being  herdsmen, 
may  be  due  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  old  Norse  word  "  fehirCir,"  which 
might  mean  herdsmen,  but  was  also  the  usual  word  for  treasurer,  especially 
the  king's  treasurer. 

-  This  description  refers,  probably,  to  the  Lapps  and  their  magic  arts. 

3  This  must  be  another  misunderstanding  of  tales  about  Kvaens,  whom 
Adam  took  for  women. 

*  These  skin-clad  hunters,  who  spoke  a  language  unintelligible  to  the  Nor- 
wegians, were  certainly  Lapps. 

^  It  might  be  thought  that  "  uri "  was  here  a  corruption  for  "  lutrae " 
(otters) ;  but  as  "  uri "  is  found  in  two  passages  without  making  sense  in  its 

191 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

unusual  to  our  people,  I  will  leave  these  and  other  things  to  be  related  at 
greater  length  by  the  inhabitants  of  that  country." 

Then  follows  a  reference  to  Trondhjem  and  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  country,  etc. 

Of  the  Western  Ocean,  from  which  the  Baltic  issues,  Adam 
says  [iv.  lo]  that  it 

seems  to  be  that  which  the  Romans  called  the  British  Ocean,  whose  im- 
measurable, fearful  and  dangerous  breadth  surrounds  Britannia  on  the  west  .  .  . 
washes  the  shores  of  the  Frisians  on  the  south  .  .  .  towards  the  rising  of 
the  sun  it  has  the  Danes,  the  entrance  to  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  the  Norsemen, 
who  live  beyond  Dania;  finally,  on  the  north  this  ocean  flows  past  the  Or- 
chades  [i.e.,  the  Shetlands,  with  perhaps  the  Orkneys],  thence  endlessly 
around  the  circle  of  the  earth,  having  on  the  left  Hybernia,  the  home  of  the 
Scots,  which  is  now  called  Ireland,  and  on  the  right  the  skerries  ("  scopulos  ") 
of  Nordmannia,  and  farther  off  the  islands  of  Iceland  and  Greenland;  there 
the  ocean,  which  is  called  the  dark  ["  caligans "  ^  shrouded  in  darkness  or 
mist]  forms  the  boundary. 

Later  [iv.  34],  after  the  description  of  Norway,  he  says  of 
the  same  ocean: 

"  Beyond  ('  post ')  Nortmannia,  which  is  the  extreme  province  of  the  North 

we  find  no  human  habitations,  only  the  great  ocean,  infinite  and  fearful  to  be- 
hold, which  encompasses  the  whole  world.  Immediately  opposite  to  Nort- 
mannia it  has  many  islands  which  are  not  unknown  and  are  now  nearly  all 
subject  to  the  Norsemen,  and  which  therefore  cannot  be  passed  by  by  us,  since 
consequently  they  belong  to  the  see  of  Hamburg.  The  first  of  them  are  Or- 
chades  insulae  [the  Shetlands  and  Orkneys],  which  the  barbarians  call  Or- 
ganas  "...  and  which  lie  "  between  Nordmannia  and  Britannia  and  Hibernia, 
and  they  look  playfully  and  smilingly  down  upon  the  threats  of  the  foaming 
ocean.  It  is  said  that  one  can  sail  to  them  in  one  day  from  the  Norsemen's 
town  of  Trondhjem  (' Trondemnis ').  It  is  said  likewise  to  be  a  similar  dis- 
tance from  the  Orchades  both  to  Anglia  [England]  and  to  Scotia  [Ireland?]." 

proper  meaning,  aurochs,  it  may  also  be  supposed  that  it  is  here  used  as  a 
name  for  walrus,  as  proposed  by  A.  M.  Hansen;  and  then  the  last  sentence 
will  be  quite  simple,  that  the  white  bear  lives  under  water  like  the  walrus. 
The  confusion  may  have  arisen  through  a  belief  that  the  tusks  of  the  walrus 
were  aurochs  horns.  The  horns  in  the  picture  of  the  "  Urus  "  on  the  Ebstorf 
map  (1284)  are  very  like  walrus  tusks.  But  it  is  striking  that  the  common 
land  bear  is  not  mentioned,  while  the  white  bear  is  spoken  of.  As  the  latter 
seldom  comes  to  Finmark,  its  mention  points  to  the  Norwegians  having 
hunted  it  in  the  Polar  Sea;  if  it  be  not  due  to  the  connection  of  Norway  with 
Iceland  and  Greenland,  but  as  these  lands  are  mentioned  separately  this  seems 
less  probable. 
192 


AWAKENING    OF   MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

[iv.  3s].  "The  island  of  Thyle,  which  is  separated  from  the  others  by  an 
infinite  distance  lies  far  out  in  the  middle  of  the  ocean  and,  as  is  said,  is 
scarcely  known.  Both  the  Roman  authors  and  the  barbarians  have  much  to 
say  of  it  which  is  worth  mentioning.  They  say  that  Thyle  is  the  extreme 
island  of  all,  where  at  the  summer  solstice,  when  the  sun  is  passing  through 
the  sign  of  Cancer,  there  is  no  night,  and  correspondingly  at  the  winter  solstice 
no  day.  Some  think  that  this  is  the  case  for  six  months  at  a  time.  Bede  also 
says  that  the  light  summer  nights  in  Britain  indicate  without  doubt  that,  just 
as  at  the  summer  solstice  they  have  there  continuous  day  for  six  months,  so  it 
is  nights  at  the  winter  solstice,  when  the  sun  is  hidden.  Pytheas  of  Massalia 
writes  that  this  occurs  in  the  island  of  Thyle,  which  lies  six  days'  sail  north  of 
Britain,  and  it  is  this  Thyle  which  is  now  called  Iceland  from  the  ice  which 
there  binds  the  sea.  They  report  this  remarkable  thing  about  it,  that  this  ice 
appears  to  be  so  black  and  dry  that,  on  account  of  its  age,  it  burns  when  it  is 
kindled.i  This  island  is  immensely  large,  so  that  it  contains  many  people  who 
live  solely  upon  the  produce  of  their  flocks  and  cover  themselves  vnth  their 
wool.  No  corn  grows  there,  and  there  is  only  very  little  timber  -  for  which 
reason   the  inhabitants  are  obliged  to  live  in  underground  holes,  and  share 

1  This  idea  may  possibly  be  due  on  the  one  hand  to  the  mist,  which  may 
have  been  regarded  as  brought  about  by  heat;  for  in  a  scholium  (possibly  by 
Adam  himself,  or  not  much  later)  we  read:  "By  Iceland  is  the  Ice  Sea,  and 
it  is  boiling  and  shrouded  in  mist  ('caligans')."  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be 
due  to  statements  about  volcanoes  and  boiling  springs  which  have  been  con- 
fused with  it.  The  black  color  and  dryness  of  the  ice  may  be  due  to  con- 
fusion with  lava  or  with  floating  pumice-stone  in  the  sea,  and  statements  about 
the  lignite  of  Iceland  ("  surtarbrand  ")  may  also  have  given  rise  to  this  idea 
[cf.  Baumgartner,  1902,  p.  503].  Lonborg's  suggestion  [1897,  p.  165]  that  it 
may  be  due  to  driftwood  is  less  probable.  Compare  also  the  idea  in  the 
"Meregarto"  above,  p.  181)  of  the  ice  as  hard  as  crystal,  which  is  heated.  In 
two  MSS.  of  Solinus,  of  which  the  oldest  is  of  the  twelfth  century  [cf.  Mom- 
msen's  edition  of  Solinus,  1895,  pp.  xxxiv.,  xxxvii.,  236;  Lappenberg,  1838,  pp. 
887  f.]  there  is  an  addition  about  the  northern  islands  in  which  we  read  of 
Iceland.  "  Yslande.  The  sea-ice  on  this  island  ignites  itself  on  collision,  and 
when  it  is  ignited  it  burns  like  wood.  These  people  also  are  good  Christians, 
but  in  winter  they  dare  not  leave  their  underground  holes  on  account  of  the 
terrible  cold.  For  if  they  go  out  they  are  smitten  by  such  severe  cold  that  they 
lose  their  color  like  lepers  and  swell  up.  If  by  chance  they  blow  their  nose, 
it  comes  off  and  they  throw  it  away  with  what  they  have  blown  out."  This 
passage  cannot  be  derived  from  Adam  of  Bremen  (nor  has  it  any  resemblance 
to  the  Meregarto) ;  it  may  indicate  that  similar  ideas  of  the  ice  of  Iceland  were 
current  at  that  time.  Saxo's  remarkable  allusion  to  this  ice  (in  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  work)  also  shows  that  it  was  connected  with  much  superstition. 

2  The  woods  consisted  then  as  now  solely  of  birch  trees,  which  were  how- 
ever larger  at  that  time. 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

their  dwellings  with  their  cattle.  They  thus  lead  a  holy  life  in  simplicity,  as 
they  do  not  strive  after  more  than  what  nature  gives;  they  can  cheerfully  say 
with  the  Apostle:  '  If  we  have  clothing  and  food,  let  us  be  content  therewith! ' 
for  their  mountains  are  to  them  in  the  stead  of  cities,  and  their  springs  serve 
them  for  pleasure.  I  regard  this  people  as  happy,  whose  poverty  none  covets, 
but  happiest  in  that  they  have  now  all  adopted  Christianity.  There  is  much 
that  is  excellent  in  their  customs,  especially  their  good  disposition,  whereby 
everything  is  shared,  not  only  with  the  natives,  but  with  strangers."  After  re- 
ferring to  their  good  treatment  of  their  bishop,  etc.,  he  concludes:  "thus  much 
I  have  been  credibly  informed  of  Iceland  and  extreme  Thyle,  but  I  pass  over 
what  is  fabulous. 

[iv.  36.]  "  Furthermore  there  are  many  other  islands  in  the  great  ocean,  of 
•which  Greenland  is  not  the  least;  it  lies  farther  out  in  the  ocean,  opposite 
('  contra ')  the  mountains  of  Suedia,  or  the  Riphean  range.  To  this  island,  it 
is  said,  one  can  sail  from  the  shore  of  Nortmannia  in  five  or  seven  days,  as 
likewise  to  Iceland.  The  people  there  are  blue  ['  cerulei,'  bluish-green]  from 
the  salt  water;  and  from  this  the  region  takes  its  name.  They  live  in  a  similar 
fashion  to  the  Icelanders,  except  that  they  are  more  cruel  and  trouble  seafarers 
by  predatory  attacks.  To  them  also,  as  is  reported,  Christianity  has  lately 
been  wafted. 

"A  third  island  is  Halagland  [Halogaland],  nearer  to  Nortmannia,  in  size 
not  unlike  the  others.^  This  island  in  summer,  about  the  summer  solstice, 
sees  the  sun  uninterruptedly  above  the  earth  for  fourteen  days,  and  in  winter 
it  has  to  be  without  the  sun  for  a  like  number  of  days."  This  is  a  marvel  and 
a  mystery  to  the  barbarians,  who  do  not  know  that  the  unequal  length  of  days 
results  from  the  approach  and  retreat  of  the  sun.  On  account  of  the  round- 
ness of  the  earth  ('  rotunditas  orbis  terrarum ')  the  sun  must  in  one  place  ap- 
proach and  bring  the  day,  and  in  another  depart  and  leave  the  night.  Thus 
when  it  ascends  towards  the  summer  solstice,  it  prolongs  the  days  and  short- 
ens the  nights  for  those  in  the  north,  but  when  it  descends  towards  the  win- 
ter solstice,  it  does  the  same  for  those  in  the  southern  hemisphere  ('  australi- 
bus').3     Therefore   the   ignorant   heathens    call   that    land   holy   and   blessed, 

1  In  a  scholium,  possibly  by  Adam  himself,  there  is  this  correction:  "ac- 
cording to  what  others  report,  Halagland  is  the  extreme  part  of  Norway, 
which  borders  on  the  Skridfinns  and  is  inaccessible  by  reason  of  the  forbid- 
ding mountains  and  the  harshness  of  the  cold." 

-  This  statement  that  the  summer  day  and  the  winter  night  were  of  the  same 
length  cannot  here,  any  more  than  in  Jordanes  and  Procopius,  be  due  to  direct 
observation  on  the  part  of  Northerners,  but  must  be  an  echo  of  classical  astro- 
nomical speculations  (cf.  above,  pp.  134,  144).  It  is  strange,  too,  that  while  in 
Jordanes  (and  Procopius)  the  length  of  the  summer  day  and  winter  night  was 
forty  days  (among  the  "  Adogit "  in  Halogaland),  it  is  here  given  as  fourteen 
days  in  Halogaland.  Possibly  the  number  fourteen  may  be  due  to  a  con- 
fusion or  a  copyist's  error  for  forty. 

3  Probably  Adam  has  taken  this  explanation  from  Bede  [cf.  Kohlmann,  1908, 
pp.  45  ff.]. 
194 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

which  has  such  a  marvel  to  exhibit  to  mortals.  But  the  king  of  the  Danes 
and  many  others  have  stated  that  this  takes  place  there  as  well  as  in  Suedia 
and  Norvegia  and  the  other  islands  which  are  there. 

[iv.  38]  "  Moreover  he  mentioned  yet  another  island,  which  had  been 
discovered  by  many  in  that  ocean,  and  which  is  called  'Winland,'  because 
vines  grow  there  of  themselves  and  give  the  noblest  wine.  And  that  there  is 
abundance  of  unsown  corn  we  have  obtained  certain  knowledge,  not  by  fabu- 
lous supposition,  but  from  trustworthy  information  of  the  Danes.  (Beyond 
('  post ')  this  island,  he  said,  no  habitable  land  is  found  in  this  ocean,  but  all 
that  is  more  distant  is  full  of  intolerable  ice  and  immense  mist  ['  caligine,'  pos- 
sibPy  darkness  caused  by  mist].  Of  these  things  Marcianus  has  told  us: 
'  Beyond  Thyle,'  says  he,  '  one  day's  sail,  the  sea  is  stiffened.'  This  was  re- 
cently proved  by  Harald,  prince  of  the  Nordmanni,  most  desirous  of  knowl- 
edge, who  explored  the  breadth  of  the  northern  'ocean  with  his  ships,  and 
■when  the  boundaries  of  the  vanishing  earth  were  darkened  before  his  face, 
he  scarcely  escaped  the  immense  gulf  of  the  abyss  by  turning  back.).^ 

[iv.  39.]  "  Archbishop  Adalbert,  of  blessed  memory,  likewise  told  us  that 
in  his  predecessor's  days  certain  noblemen  from  Friesland,  intending  to  plough 
the  sea,  set  sail  northwards,  because  people  say  there  that  due  north  of  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Wirraha  [Weser]  no  land  is  to  be  met  with,  but  only  an 
infinite  ocean.  They  joined  together  to  investigate  this  curious  thing,  and  left 
the  Frisian  coast  with  cheerful  song.  Then  they  left  Dania  on  one  side,  Brit- 
ain on  the  other,  and  reached  the  Orkneys.  When  they  had  left  these  behind 
on  the  left,  and  had  Nordmannia  on  the  right,  they  reached  after  a  long  voy- 
age the  frozen  Iceland.  Ploughing  the  seas  from  this  land  towards  the  ex- 
treme axis  of  the  north,  after  seeing  behind  them  all  the  islands  already  men- 
tioned, and  confiding  their  lives  and  their  boldness  to  Almighty  God  and  the 
holy  preacher  Willehad,  they  suddenly  glided  into  the  misty  darkness  of  the 
stiffened  ocean,  which  can  scarcely  be  penetrated  by  the  eye.  And  behold! 
the  stream  of  the  unstable  sea  there  ran  back  into  one  of  its  secret  sources, 
drawing  at  a  fearful  speed  the  unhappy  seamen,  who  had  already  given  up 
hope  and  only  thought  of  death,  into  that  profound  chaos  (this  is  said  to  be 
the  gulf  of  the  abyss)  in  which  it  is  said  that  all  the  back-currents  of  the  sea, 
which  seem  to  abate,  are  sucked  up  and  vomited  forth  again,  which  latter  is 
usually  called  flood-tide.  While  they  were  then  calling  upon  God's  mercy, 
that  He  might  receive  their  souls,  this  backward-running  stream  of  the  sea 
caught  some  of  their  fellows'  ships,  but  the  rest  were  shot  out  by  the  issuing 


1  This  passage,  from  "  Beyond  this  island,"  is  not  found  in  all  the  MSS., 
whence  Lappenberg  [1876,  p.  xvii]  thinks  it  is  a  later  addition — but  by  Adam 
himself,  as  the  style  resembles  his.  To  this  latter  reason  it  may  be  objected 
that  when  Adam  mentions  Harold  Hardrade  earlier  in  his  work,  he  is  disposed 
to  disparage  him,  which  is  not  the  case  here.  But  since  he  does  not  disparage 
him  either  in  his  mention  of  the  Baltic  voyage  (see  p.  185),  this  is  of  little  im- 
portance. 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

current  far  beyond  the  others.  When  they  had  thus  by  God's  help  been  de- 
livered from  the  imminent  danger,  which  had  been  before  their  very  eyes,  they 
saved  themselves  upon  the  waves  by  rowing  with  all  their  strength. 

[iv.  40.]  "  And  being  now  past  the  danger  of  darkness  and  the  region  of 
cold  they  landed  unexpectedly  upon  an  island,  which  was  fortified  like  a  town, 
with  cliffs  all  about  it.  They  landed  there  to  see  the  place,  and  found  people 
who  at  midday  hid  themselves  in  underground  caves;  before  the  doors  of 
these  lay  an  immense  quantity  of  golden  vessels  and  metal  of  the  sort  which 
is  regarded  by  mortals  as  rare  and  precious;  when  therefore  they  had  taken 
as  much  of  the  treasures  as  they  could  lift,  the  rowers  hastened  gladly  back 
to  their  ships.  Then  suddenly  they  saw  people  of  marvellous  height  coming 
behind  them,  whom  we  call  Cyclops,  and  before  them  ran  dogs  which  sur- 
passed the  usual  size  of  these  animals.  One  of  the  men  was  caught,  as  these 
rushed  forward,  and  in  an  instant  he  was  torn  to  pieces  before  their  eyes;  but 
the  rest  were  taken  up  into  the  ships  and  escaped  the  danger,  although,  as 
they  related,  the  giants  followed  them  with  cries  nearly  into  deep  sea.  With 
such  a  fate  pursuing  them,  the  Frisians  came  to  Bremen,  where  they  told  the 
most  reverend  Alebrand  everything  in  order  as  it  happened,  and  made  offer- 
ings to  the  gentle  Christ  and  his  preacher  Willehad  for  their  safe  return." 

As  will  be  seen,  Adam  obtained  from  the  people  of  Scan- 
dinavia much  new  information  and  fresh  ideas  about  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  North,  which  add  considerably  to  the  knowledge 
of  former  times;  but  unfortunately  he  confuses  this  information 
with  the  legends  and  ancient  classical  notions  he  has  acquired 
from  reading  the  learned  authors  of  late  Roman  and  early  mediae- 
val times;  and  this  confusion  reaches  its  climax  in  the  last  tale, 
which  is  chiefly  of  interest  to  the  folk-lorist.  The  first  part  of  it 
(section  39)  is  made  up  from  Paulus  Wamefridi's  description 
of  the  earth's  navel,  to  some  extent  with  the  same  expressions 
(see  above,  p.  157)  ;  the  second  part  (section  40)  is  based  upon 
legends  on  the  model  of  the  Odyssey,  of  which  there  were 
many  in  the  Middle  Ages.  While  his  description  gives  a  fairly 
clear  picture  of  his  views  regarding  the  countries  on  the  Bal- 
tic, it  is  difficult  to  get  any  definite  idea  of  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  the  more  distant  islands;  but  it  is  probable,  as  proposed 
by  Gustav  Storm,  that  he  imagined  them  as  lying  far  in  the 
north. 

As  Wineland  is  mentioned  last,  and  as  it  is  added  that  be- 
yond this  island  there  is  no  habitable  land  in  this  ocean,  but  that 
196 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL   KNOWLEDGE 

all  is  full  of  ice  and  mist,  it  might  be  thought  that  this  is  regarded 
as  lying  farthest  out  in  a  northerly  direction.  But  this  would 
not  agree  with  Adam's  earlier  statement  [iv.  lo],  where  Iceland 
and  Greenland  are  given  as  the  most  distant  islands,  and  "  there 
this  ocean,  which  is  called  the  dark  one,  forms  the  boundary." 
The  explanation  must  be  that,  as  already  remarked  (p.  195), 
his  statement  about  the  ocean  beyond  Wineland  is  probably 
a  later  addition,  though  possibly  by  Adam  himself.  It  is 
obviously  inserted  somewhat  disconnectedly,  and  perhaps  has 
been  put  in  the  wrong  place,  and  this  is  also  made  probable  by 
the  quotation  from  Marcianus  about  Thyle,  which  has  nothing 
to  do  with  Wineland,  but  refers  on  the  contrary  to  Iceland  (cf. 
p.  193).^  Omitting  this  interpolation,  the  text  says  of  the 
geographical  position  merely  that  the  King  of  the  Danes  also 
mentioned  the  island  of  Wineland,  as  discovered  by  many  in 
that  ocean,  i.e.,  the  outer  ocean,  and  so  far  as  this  goes,  it 
might  be  imagined  as  lying  anywhere.  That  no  importance  is 
attached  to  the  order  in  which  the  islands  are  named  appears 
also  from  the  fact  that  Halagland  is  put  after  Iceland  and  Green- 
land, although  it  is  expressly  stated  that  it  lay  nearer  Norway. 
That  Adam,  after  having  described  the  last-named  country  a  long 
while  before,  here  gratuitously  mentions  Halagland  (Haloga- 
land)  as  an  island  by  itself  -  together  with  Iceland  and  Greenland, 
shows  how  deficient  his  information  about  the  northernmost  re- 
gions really  was. 

As  will  be  further  shown  in  the  later  chapter  on  Wineland, 
Adam's  ideas  of  that  country,  of  the  wine  and  the  com  there, 

1  While  this  sheet  is  in  the  press  I  happen  to  see  that  the  same  opinion  has 
been  advanced,  almost  in  the  same  words,  by  Sven  Lonborg  [1897,  p.  168]. 

2  Adam's  idea  of  Halogaland  (Halagland)  as  an  island  may  be  due  to  its 
similarity  of  sound  to  the  "  Heiligland  "  (Heligoland)  mentioned  by  him.  As 
one  of  these  lands  was  an  island  it  must  have  been  easy  to  suppose  that  the 
other  was  one  also.  The  interpretation  of  the  name  as  meaning  holy  may 
come  from  the  same  source.  Heiligland  was  regarded  as  holy  on  account  of 
the  monastery  established  there.  A  corresponding  name,  "  Eyin  Helga,"  is 
applied  in  the  sagas  to  two  islands:  Helgeo  in  Mjosen,  and  the  well-known 
lona  in  the  Hebrides  [Magnus  Barfot's  Saga,  cap.  10.].  The  latter  was  holy 
on  account  of  Columcille's  church. 

197 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

must  be  derived  from  legends  about  the  Fortunate  Isles,  which 
were  called  by  the  Norsemen  "  Vinland  hit  GoSa."  This  legend 
must  have  been  current  in  the  North  at  that  time,  and  possibly 
it  may  already  have  been  connected  with  the  discovery  of 
countries  in  the  west.  But  it  is  perhaps,  not  altogether  acci- 
dental that  Wineland  should  be  mentioned  immediately  after 
Halagland.  For  as  the  latter  name  was  regarded  as  meaning 
the  Holy  Land.^  it  may  be  natural  that  Wineland  or  the  For- 
tunate Isles,  originally  the  Land  of  the  Blest,  should  be  placed 
in  its  neighborhood.  To  this  the  resemblance  in  sound  be- 
tween Vinland  and  Finland  (or,  more  correctly,  Finmark,  the  land 
of  the  Finns  or  Lapps),  may,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
have  contributed;  later  in  the  Middle  Ages  these  names 
were  often  confused  and  interchanged.-  Finns  and  Finland 
were  sometimes  spelt  in  German  with  a  V;  and  V 
and  F  were  transposed  in  geographical  names  even  outside 
Germany,  as  when,  in  an  Icelandic  geographical  tract  attribu- 
ted to  Abbot  Nikulas  Bergsson  of  Thvera  (ob.  1159),  Venice 
is  transformed  by  popular  etymology  to  "  Feneyjar "  [cf. 
F.  Jonsson,  1901,  p.  948].  It  is  particularly  interesting  that 
the  Latin  "  vinum "  (wine)  became  in  Irish  legendary  poetry 
"  fin,"  and  the  vine  was  called  "  fine,"  as  in  the  poem  of 
the  Voyage  of  Bran  [Kuno  Meyer,  1895,  vol.  i.,  pp.  xvii., 
9,  21]. 

It  is  not  clear  from  Adam's  description  whether  he  alto- 
gether held  the  conception  of  the  earth,  or  rather  the  "  oecu- 
mene,"  as  a  circular  island  or  disc  divided  into  three,  sur- 
rounded by  the  outer  ocean  (the  Oceanus  of  the  Greeks,  see 
p.  8),  as  represented  on  the  wheel-maps  of  earlier  times 
(cf.  p.  151,  and  the  Beatus  map);  but  his  expression  that  the 

1  See  note  2,  p.  197. 

=  Adam  did  not  apparently  know  the  name  "  Finn,"  he  only  mentions  Fin- 
nedi  and  Scritefini.  It  might  then  seem  natural  that  he  should  intermix  the 
names  Vinland  and  Finland,  and  believing  that  this  Fin-  or  Vin-  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  wine  he  may  have  applied  to  this  land  Isidore's  description 
of  the  Fortunate  Isles,  in  a  similar  manner  as  he  applied  the  Greek  story 
about  the  Amazons  to  Kvaenland  with  the  Cynocephali,  etc. 
198 


AWAKENING    OF    MEDIEVAL    KNOWLEDGE 

Western  Ocean  extends  northwards  from  the  Orchades  "  infi- 
nitely around  the  circle  of  the  earth "  ("  infinites  orbem 
terras  spaciis  ambit ")  may  point  to  this.  It  is  true  that  imme- 
diately afterwards  he  has  an  obscure  statement  that  at  Green- 
land "  ibi  terminat  oceanus  qui  dicitur  caligans,"  which  has 
usually  been  translated  as  "  there  ends  the  ocean,  which  is 
called  the  dark  one  "   ( ?) ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  get  any  sense 


The  so-called  St.  Severus  version,  of  about  1050,  of  the  Beatus 
map   (eighth  century) 

out  of  it.  One  explanation  might  be  that  he  imagined  Green- 
land as  lying  out  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the  earth's  disc,  near 
the  abyss,  and  that  thus  the  ocean  (which  in  that  region  was 
called  dark?)  ended  here  in  that  direction  (i.e.,  in  its  breadth), 
while  in  its  length  it  extended  further  continuously  around 
"  the  circle  of  the  earth."  This  view  would,  no  doubt,  conflict 
with  his  statement  in  another  place  that  the  earth  was  round, 
but  which  can  only  be  understood  as  meaning  that  it  had  the 
form  of  a  globe.  But  this  last  idea  he  took  from  Bede,  and  he 
has   scarcely   assimilated   it   sufficiently   for   it  to  permeate   his 

199 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

views    of   the    circle    of   the    earth    and    the    universal    ocean, 
as     also     appears     from     his     mention     of     the     gulf     at     its 
outer    limit.     If    we    had    been    able    to    Suppose    that    Adam 
really     thought     the     Western     Ocean  on     the     north     flowed 
past      the      Orchades,      and     thence     infinitely     towards      the 
west  around  the  globe  of  the  earth  (instead  of  the  circle  of  the 
earth),  this  would  better  suit  the  statement  that  Ireland  lay  to 
the  left,  Norway  to  the  right,  and  Iceland  and  Greenland  farther 
out  (also  to  the  right?).     This  would  agree  with  the  statement 
that  Norway  was  the  extreme  land  on  the  north,  and  that  beyond 
it  (i.e.,  farther  north?)  there  was  no  human  habitation,  but  only 
the   infinite   ocean   which   surrounds   the   whole   world,   and   in 
which  opposite  ("  ex  adverso  ")  Norway  lie  many  islands,  etc. 
According  to  this,    these   islands   must   be   imagined   as   lying 
to   the   west,   and   not   to  the   north   of  Norway.     But   besides 
the    fact   that    such   a   view    of   the    extent   of   the    ocean    to- 
wards   the    west    would    conflict    with    the    prevailing    carto- 
graphical   representation    of    that    time,    it    is    contradicted    by 
his    assertion    that    Greenland    lies    farther    out    in    the    ocean 
(than  Iceland)   and  opposite  the  mountains  of  Suedia  and  the 
Riphean  range,   which  must  be  supposed  to  lie   on  the   conti- 
nent  to   the   north-east   of   Norway;   this   cannot  very  well  be 
possible  unless  these  islands  are  to  be  placed  out  in  the  ocean 
farther  north  than  Norway,  and  there  is  thus  on  this  point  a 
difficult  contradiction  in  Adam's  work.     The  circumstance  that 
Halogaland    is    spoken    of    as    an    island    after    Iceland    and 
Greenland   is   also   against   the   probability   that   the    ocean,    in 
which    these    islands    lay,    was    imagined    to    extend    infinitely 
towards  the   west;   the  direction   is  in  this   manner,    given   as 
northerly.     The    same   thing    appears   from   the   description    of 
the  voyage  of  the  Frisian  noblemen:  when  they  steered  north- 
ward with  the  Orkneys  to  port  and  Norway  to  starboard  they 
came  to  the  frozen  Iceland,  and   when  they  proceeded  thence 
towards  the  North  Pole,  they  saw  behind  them  all  the  islands 
previously  mentioned.     Dr.  A.  A.  Bjornbo  has  suggested  to  me 
that  according  to  Adam's  way  of  expressing  himself  "  terminat " 
200 


AWAKENING   OF    MEDIEVAL   KNOWLEDGE 

must  here  mean  "  forms  the  boundary,"  whereby  we  get  the 
translation  given  above  (p.  192),  which  seems  to  give  better 
sense;  but  in  any  case  Adam's  description  of  these  regions  is 
not  quite  clear. 

We  are  told  that  Magister  Adam  obtained  information  about 
the  countries  and  peoples  of  the  North  from  Svein  Estridsson 
and  his  men;  but  as  regards  Iceland  he  might  also  have  had 
trustworthy  information  from  the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  Adal- 
bert, who  had  educated  an  Icelander,  Isleif  Gissursson,  to  be 
bishop.  The  latter  (who  is  also  mentioned  by  Are  Frode) 
might  also  have  told  him  about  Greenland  and  Wineland; 
but  Adam  says  distinctly  that  he  had  been  informed  about 
the  latter  country  and  the  wine  and  corn  there,  which  must 
have  seemed  very  remarkable  to  him,  if  he  imagined  the 
country  to  be  in  the  north,  by  the  Danish  king,  and  that  the 
information  had  been  confirmed  by  Danes.  We  shall  return 
later  to  these  countries,  to  Adam's  ideas  of  Wineland,  and  to 
the  alleged  polar  expeditions  of  King  Harold  and  of  the  Frisian 
noblemen. 

Just  as  these  pages  are  going  to  press  I  have  received  from 
Dr.  Axel  Anthon  Bjornbo  his  excellent  essay  on  "  Adam  of 
Bremen's  view  of  the  North"  [1909].  By  Dr.  Bjornbo's 
exhaustive  researches  the  correctness  of  the  views  just  set 
forth  seems  to  be  confirmed  on  many  points;  but  he  gives  a 
far  more  complete  picture  of  Adam's  geographical  ideas.  The 
reasons  advanced  by  Dr.  Bjornbo  for  supposing  that  Adam 
imagined  the  ocean  as  surrounding  the  earth's  disc,  with  Ice- 
land, Greenland,  etc.,  in  the  north,  are  of  much  interest.  His 
map  of  the  North  according  to  Adam's  description  is  of  great 
value,  and  gives  a  clear  presentation  of  the  main  lines  of 
Adam's  conceptions.  With  his  kind  permission  it  is  repro- 
duced here  (p.  186).  But,  as  will  appear  from  my  remarks 
above  (pp.  197,  f.),  I  am  not  sure  that  one  is  justified  in  placing 
Winland  so  far  north,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  North 
Pole,  as  Dr.  Bjornbo  has  done  in  his  map.  Possibly  he  has 
also  put  the   other  islands  rather  far   north,   and  has  curved 

201 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

the    north    coast    of    Scandinavia    somewhat    too    much    in    a 
westerly  direction. 

Through  Dr.  Bjornbo's  book  I  have  become  acquainted  with 
another  recently  published  work  on  Adam  of  Bremen  by  Her- 
mann Krabbo  [1909],  of  which  I  have  also  been  unable  to 
make  use;  it  also  has  a  map,  but  not  so  complete  a  one  as 
Bjornbo's  as  regards  the  northern  regions. 


202 


CHAPTER   VI 

FINNS,    SKRIDFINNS    (LAPPS),    AND    THE    FIRST 
SETTLEMENT    OF    SCANDINAVIA 


BEFORE  we  proceed  to  the  Norwegians'  great  contribu- 
tions to  the  exploration  of  the  northern  regions,  we 
shall  attempt  to  collect  and  survey  what  is  known,  and  what 
may  possibly  be  concluded,  about  the  most  northern  people 
of  Europe,  the  Finns,  and  the  earliest  settlement  of  Scan- 
dinavia. 

The  Finns  are  mentioned,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  113),  for  the 
first  time  in  literature  by  Tacitus,  who  calls  them  "  Fenni," 
and  describes  them  as  exclusively  a  people  of  hunters.  Proco- 
pius  does  the  same,  but  calls  them  "  Skridfinns,"  and  removes 
their  home  to  the  northernmost  Thule  or  Scandinavia.  Cassio- 
dorus  (Jordanes)  also  mentions  the  "  Skridfinns "  as  hunters 
in  the  same  northern  regions,  but  speaks  moreover  of  "  Finns  " 
and  "  Finaiti,"  and  another  people  resembling  the  Finns 
("  Vinoviloth "?)  farther  south  in  Scandinavia.  The  Ravenna 
geographer  also  mentions  the  "Skridfinns"  (after  Jordanes). 
Then  comes  Paulus  Warnefridi,  who  speaks  of  the  ski  running 

203 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

of  the  Skridfinns,  though  indeed  in  a  way  which  shows  he  did 
not  understand  it  very  well,  and  mentions  a  deer  of  whose 
skin  they  made  themselves  clothes,  but  does  not  say  that  this 
deer  was  domesticated.  Next  King  Alfred  mentions  "  Skrid- 
finns," "  Finns,"  and  "  Ter-Finns,"  and  in  the  information  he 
obtained  from  Ottar  he  speaks  of  the  hunting,  fishing  and  whaling 
of  the  "Finns,"  and  of  their  keeping  reindeer  in  the  north  of 
Norway.  This  description  is  in  accordance  with  what  we  learn 
of  the  Lapps  from  later  history,  with  this  difference  only, 
that  on  account  of  the  killing-off  of  the  game  their  hunting 
in  recent  times  became  of  small  importance.  Lastly  we  have 
Adam  of  Bremen's  description  of  the  Finns,  which  contains 
nothing  new  of  note.  He  mentions  "  Finnedi  "  or  "  Finvedi " 
between  Sweden  and  Norway  (near  Vermeland)  and  "  Skrid- 
finns "  in  northern  Scandinavia.  Besides  these  he  speaks  of 
a  small  people  who  come  down  at  intervals,  once  a  year 
or  every  three  years,  from  the  mountains,  and  who  are 
probably  the  Mountain  Lapps  with  their  reindeer.  He  men- 
tions also  a  people  skilled  in  magic  on  the  shores  of  the  northern 
ocean  [Finmark],  and  skin-clad  men  in  the  forestg^jaf  the  north, 
who  may  be  Fishing  Lapps  or  Forest  Lapps,  an  connection 
with  this  we  may  also  refer  to  the  mention  of  the  Lapps  in 
the  "  Historia  Norvegiae": 

Norway  "  is  divided  lengthways  into  three  curved  zones  [i.e.,  parallel  to  the 
curved  coast-line] :  the  first  zone,  which  is  very  large  and  lies  along  the  coast, 
the  second,  the  inland  zone,  which  is  also  called  the  mountain  zone,  the  third, 
the  forest  zone,  which  is  inhabited  by  Finns  [Lapps],  but  is  not  ploughed." 
The  Lapps,  in  the  third  zone,  which  was  waste  land,  "  were  very  skilled  hunters, 
they  roam  about  singly  and  are  nomads,  and  they  live  in  huts  made  of  hides 
instead  of  houses.  These  houses  they  take  on  their  shoulders,  and  they  fasten 
smoothed  pieces  of  wood  [literally,  balks,  stakes]  under  their  feet,  which  ap- 
pliances they  call  '  ondrer,'  and  while  the  deer  [i.e.,  reindeer]  gallop  along 
carrying  their  wives  and  children  over  the  deep  snow  and  precipitous  moun- 
tains, they  dash  on  more  swiftly  than  the  birds.  Their  dwelling-place  is 
uncertain  [it  changes]  according  as  the  quantity  of  game  shows  them  a 
hunting-ground  when  it  is  needed." 

ElQm  the  earliest  accounts  referred  to  especially  from 
that  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  it  looks  as  though  there  were 
204 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 


Fishing  Lapps  and  Reindeer  Lapps  in  northern  Scandinavia 
in  those  remote  times,  as  there  are  now,  and  they  were 
called  Finns  or  Skridfinnsj  but  besides  these  there  were 
people  who  were  called  Finns  in  southern  Scandinavia,  from 
whence  they  have  since  disappeared.  This  has  led  to  the 
hypothesis  that  the  primitive  population  in  southern  Scan- 
dinavia also  was  composed  of  the  same  Firms  (Lapps)  as  are 
now  found  in  the  northern  part,  to  which  they  were  compelled 
to  retreat  by  the 
later  Germanic 
immigrants  [cf. 
Geijer,  1825,  pp. 
411,  ff. ;  Munch, 
1852,  pp.  3,  ff.; 
Sven  Nilsson]. 
But  for  various 
reasons  .this 
hypothesis  has 
had  to  be  aban- 
doned, and  the 
question  has  be- 
come   difficult. 

The  word  "  Finn  "  as  the  name  of  a  people  does  notvoccur, 
so  far  as  is  known,  outside  Scandinavia.  The  only  place  farther 
south  where  there  are  place-names  which  remind  one  of  it  is 
in  Friesland,  where  we  find  a  Finsburg.  The  origin  of  the 
national  name  "  Finn  "  is  unknown.  Some  have  thought  that 
it  might  be  connected  with  the  word  "  finna  "  (English,  to  find), 
and  that  it  means  one  who  goes  on  foot. 

Since  in  Swedish  and  Norwegian  the  name  has  come  to  be 
applied  to  two  such  entirely  different  peoples  as,  in  Norway,  the 
Fishing  Lapps  and  Reindeer  Lapps  and,  in  Sweden,  the  people 
of  Finland,  we  must  suppose  that  in  the  primitive  Norse  lan- 
guage it  was  a  common  designation  for  several  non-Germanic 
races,  whom  the  later  Germanic  immigrants  in  south  Scan- 
dinavia drove   into  the  wastes  and  forest  tracts,   where  they 

205 


Men  of  the  Woods  in  northern  Scandinavia 
[from  Olaus  Magnus] 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

lived  by  hunting  and  fishing.  This  would  provide  a  natural 
explanation  of  the  curious  circumstance  that  Jordanes,  as 
well  as  Adam  of  Bremen  (later  also  Saxo),  mentions  Finns, 
Finvedi,  and  other  Finn-peoples  in  many  parts  of  south  Scan- 
dinavia ;  in  our  saga  literature  there  are  also  many  references 
to  Finns  far  south.  But  the  most  decisive  circumstance  is, 
perhaps,  that  the  word  Finn  occurs  in  many  place-names  of 
south  Scandinavia,  from  Finnskog  and  Finnsjo  in  Uppland, 
and  Finnheden  or  Finnveden  in  Smaland,  to  Finno  in  the 
Bokn-fiord  [cf.  Miillenhoff,  ii.  1887,  p.  51;  A.  M.  Hansen, 
1907].  It  may  be  quoted  as  a  strong  piece  of  evidence  that  a 
people  called  Finns  must  have  lived  in  old  times  in  south  Nor- 
way, that  the  oldest  Christian  laws  of  about  11 50,  for  the  most 
southern  jurisdictions,  the  Borgathing  and  Eidsivathing,  visit 
with  the  severest  penalty  of  the  law  the  crime  of  going  to 
the  Finns,  or  to  Finmark,  to  have  one's  fortune  told  [cf.  A.  M. 
Hansen,  1907,  p.  79].  It  may  seem  improbable  that  here 
(e.g.,  as  far  south  as  Bohuslan)  this  should  have  referred  to 
Finns  (Lapps)  in  the  north,  in  what  is  now  called  Finmark ;  and 
we  should  be  rather  inclined  to  believe  it  to  refer  to  the  Finns 
(and  Finnedi)  mentioned  by  Jordanes  and  Adam  of  Bremen 
nearer  at  hand,  in  the  forest  tracts  between  Norway  and 
Sweden,  where  we  still  have  a  Finnskog,  which,  however,  is 
generally  connected  with  the  later  immigration  of  Kvasns  or 
Finns  from  Finland  (the  so-called  wood-devils;  compare  also 
Finmarken  between  Lier  and  Modum).  But  it  might  be  thought 
that  these  Christian  laws  were  compiled  more  or  less  from 
laws  enacted  for  northern  Norway,  and  thus  provisions  of 
this  kind,  which  were  only  adapted  for  that  part  of  the  country, 
were  included.  And  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  northern 
Finns  (Lapps)  in  particular  had  an  ancient  reputation  for  pro- 
ficiency in  magic  and  soothsaying,  and,  further,  that  Finmark 
in  those  times  was  often  regarded  as  extending  much  farther 
south  than  now,  as  far  as  Jemtland  and  Herjedalen. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  with  certainty  what  kind  of  people 
the  "  Finns "  who  were  found  in  many  parts  of  south  Scan- 
206 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

dinavia  may  have  been.  The  supposition  that  they  were  the 
same  people  as  the  Finns  (Lapps)  of  our  time  has  had  to  be 
abandoned,  as  we  have  said,  in  the  face  of  more  recent  archaeo- 
logical, anthropological,  and  historical-geographical  researches. 
Miillenhoff  [ii.  1887,  pp.  50,  ff.]  has  proposed  that  the  word 
"  Finn "  may  originally  have  been  a  Scandinavian  common 
name  for  several  peoples  who  were  diffused  in  south  Scandi- 
navia, but  who  in  his  opinion  were  Agro-Finnish,  like  the 
Kvasns,  Lapps,  and  others  [cf.  also  Geijer,  1825,  pp.  415,  f.]. 
He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  suppose  that  the  very  name  of  Scan- 
dinavia may  be  due  to  them  (like  that  of  the  ski-goddess 
"  SkaSi,"  1  who  was  a  Finn-woman,  cf.  p.  103).  But  it  has 
not  been  possible  to  point  either  to  linguistic  or  anthropological 
traces  of  any  early  Finno-Ugrian  people  in  any  part  of  south 
Scandinavia,  and  there  are  many  indications  that  the  southern 
diffusion  of  the  Mountain  Finns  (Reindeer  Lapps)  is  compara- 
tively late. 

Dr.  A.  M.  Hansen,  therefore,  in  his  suggestive  works, 
"Landnam"  [1904]  and  "  Oldtidens  Nordmasnd "  ["The 
Norsemen  of  Antiquity,"  1907],  has  put  forward  the  hypo- 
thesis that  the  Finns  of  earliest  history,  whom  he  would 
include  under  the  common  designation  of  "  Skridfinns,"  were 
a  non-Aryan  people,  wholly  distinct  both  from  the  Finno- 
Ugrian  tribes  and  from  the  Aryan  Scandinavians,  who  formed 
the  primitive  population  of  northern  Europe  and  were  related 
to  the  primitive  peoples  of  southern  Europe,  the  Pelasgians, 
Etruscans,  Basques,  and  others.  In  Scandinavia  they  were 
forced  northwards  by  the  Germanic  tribes,  and  have  now  dis- 
appeared through  being  partly  absorbed  in  the  latter.  In  the 
east  and  north-east  they  were  displaced  by  the  Finno-Ugrian 
peoples  who  immigrated  later.  The  last  remnants  of  them  would 
be  found  in  the  Fishing  Lapps  of  our  time,  and  in  the  so-called 
Yenisei  Ostyaks  of  north-western  Siberia.  This  bold  hypo- 
thesis has  the  disadvantage,  amongst   others,  of  forcing  us  to 

^  S.  Bugge  has  since  maintained  the  probability  that  the  name  "  SkaSi "  is 
of  Germanic  origin. 

207 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

assume  the  existence  of  a  vanished  people,  who  are  other- 
wise entirely  unknown.  In  the  next  place,  Dr.  Hansen,  in 
arbitrarily  applying  the  name  of  Skridfinns  to  all  the  "  Finns  " 
in  Scandinavia,  does  not  seem  to  have  laid  sufficient  weight 
on  the  difference  which  early  writers  make  between  Skridfinns 
in  the  north  and  the  other  Finns  farther  south. 

In  earlier  times  there  was  a  strong  tendency,  due  to  old 
biblical  notions,  to  imagine  all  nations  as  immigrants  to  the 
regions  where  they  are  now  found.  But  when  a  zoologist  finds 
a  particular  species  or  variety  of  animal  distributed  over  a 
limited  area,  he  makes  the  most  natural  assumption,  that  it 
has  arisen  through  a  local  differentiation  in  that  region.  The 
simplest  plan  must  be  to  look  upon  human  stocks  and  races 
in  the  same  way.  When  we  have  tried  in  Europe  to  distinguish 
between  Celts,  Germans,  Slavs,  Ugro-Finns,  etc.,  the  most 
reasonable  supposition  will  be  that  these  races  have  arisen 
through  local  "  evolution,"  the  home  of  their  differentiation 
being  within  the  area  in  which  we  find  them  later.  As  such 
centres  of  differentiation  in  Europe  we  might  suppose:  for 
the  Celts,  western  Central  Europe;  for  the  Germans,  eastern 
Central  Europe;  for  the  Slavs,  Eastern  Europe;  for  the  Ugro- 
Finns,  northern  East-Europe  and  western  Siberia,  etc. 

This  is  doubtless  a  linguistic  division,  but  to  a  certain  extent 
it  coincides  with  anthropological  distinctions.  Since  the  North 
was  covered  with  ice  till  a  comparatively  recent  period,  we 
cannot  expect  any  local  differentiation  of  importance  there 
since  that  time,  but  must  suppose  an  immigration  to  the  north 
and  to  Scandinavia  of  already  differentiated  races,  from  south- 
ern Europe.  We  may  thus  suppose  that  tribes  belonging  to 
the  parent-races  of  brachycephalic  Celts  and  Slavs  and  doli- 
chocephalic Germans  came  in  from  the  south  and  south-east, 
and  Ugro-Finns  and  Mongoloid  tribes  immigrated  from  the 
south-east  and  east.  In  this  way  we  may  expect,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  historical  period,  to  find  Celto-Slavs  and 
Germans  in  southern  and  central  Scandinavia,  and  Mongoloid 
and  Finno-Ugrian  people  in  the  northernmost  regions  and 
208 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

towards  the  north-east  and  east  (Finland  and  North  Russia). 
This  agrees  fairly  well  with  what  is  actually  found.  If  we 
except  the  northernmost  districts,  anthropological  measure- 
ments (principally  by  Brigade-Surgeon  Arbo)  show  that  the 
people  of  Norway  are  descended  not  only  from  the  tall,  fair, 
and  pronouncedly  dolichocephalic  Germanic  race,  but  also 
from  at  least  one  brachycephalic  race,  which  was  of  smaller 
stature  and  dark-haired.^  Measurements  in  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark show  a  similar  state  of  things,  but  in  Denmark  and 
the  extreme  south  of  Sweden  the  short  skulls  are  more 
numerous  than  in  the  rest  of  Scandinavia.  In  order  to 
explain  these  anthropological  conditions,  we  must  either  sup- 
pose that  the  various  Germanic  tribes  which  have  formed 
the  people  of  Scandinavia  were  more  or  less  mixed  with 
brachycephalic  people,  even  before  they  immigrated,"  in  pro- 
portions similar  to  those  now  obtaining,  or  that  tribes  im- 
migrated to  Scandinavia  belonging  to  at  least  two  different 
races,  one  specially  dolichocephalic  and  one  specially  brachy- 
cephalic. The  latter  hypothesis  will  be,  to  a  certain  extent 
at  all  events,  the  more  natural,  and  as  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  short  skulls  arrived  later  than  the  long-skulled  Germanic 
tribes,  it  is  most  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  was 
at  least  one  short-skulled  primitive  people  before  they  came. 
These  primitive  people  were  hunters  and  fishermen,  and  must 
therefore  in  most  districts  have  wandered  over  a  wide  area 
to  find  what  was  necessary  to  support  life.  It  was  only 
the  more  favorable  conditions  of  life  in  certain  districts — 
for  instance,  the  abundance  of  fish  along  the  west  coast  of 
Norway — that  allowed  a  denser  population  with  more  perma- 
nent habitation.  As  the  taller  and  stronger  Germanic  tribes 
spread  along  the  coasts,  the   older  short-skulled   hunters,  who 

1  We  shall  not  here  enter  into  the  difficult  question  of  the  blond  short 
skulls,  as  it  has  no  bearing  on  our  argument. 

-  It  might,  for  instance,  be  supposed  that  the  Ryger  and  Horder,  who  came 
from  north-eastern  Germania,  were  already  mixed  with  short-skulled  Slavs 
before  their  immigration  to  western  Norway. 

209 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

may  have  been  Celts/  were  in  most  districts  forced  towards 
the  forest  tracts  of  the  interior,  where  there  was  abundance  of 
game  and  fish.  In  districts  where  they  Hved  closer  together 
and  had  more  permanent  settlements,  as  on  the  west  coast  of 
Norway,  they  were  not  altogether  displaced.  For  this  dark 
primitive  people,  who  were  shorter  of  stature  than  themselves, 
and  who  hunted  and  fished  in  the  outlying  districts,  the 
Germanic  tribes  may,  in  one  way  or  another,  have  found 
the  common  name  of  "  Finns,"  whether  the  people  called 
themselves  so  or  the  name  arose  in  some  other  way.^ 
When  the  Germanic  people  then  came  across  another  short, 
dark-haired  people  of  hunters  and  fishermen  in  the  north, 
they  applied  the  name  of  "  Finn "  to  them  too,  although 
they  belonged  to  an  entirely  different  linguistic  family,  the 
Finno-Ugrian,  and  to  an  even  more  different  Mongoloid 
race.  But  to  distinguish  them  from  the  southern  Celtic 
people  of  hunters,  the  northern  were  sometimes  called 
"  Skridfinns."  Gradually,  as  the  southern  Finns  became  ab- 
sorbed into  the  Germanic  population  and  disappeared  as  a 
separate  people,  the  name  in  Norway  remained  attached  to 
the  other  race  and  country  (Finmark)  in  the  north,  and  in 
Sweden  to  the  very  different  people  and  country  (Finland)  in 
the    north-east. 

The  southern  Finns  were  an  Aryan  people,  and  as  the 
Aryan  languages  at  that  remote  time,  when  they  became 
detached  from  the  more  southern  short  skulls  of  Europe,  the 

^Among  the  known  brachycephalic  peoples  of  Europe  we  have  the  Celts 
and  the  western  Slavs,  Poles,  Czechs,  etc.  These  are  linguistically  far  apart, 
but  it  is  a  question  whether  the  brachycephalic  element  in  both  is  not  originally 
the  same.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  at  the  remote  period  of  which  we 
are  now  speaking,  the  linguistic  difference  between  them  was  certainly  small, 
and  for  that  matter  it  is  of  little  importance  from  which  of  them  the  first 
immigration  into   Scandinavia  came. 

-  As  Professor  Alf  Torp  has  pointed  out  to  me,  the  word  "  Fin  "  must,  on 
account  of  the  Germanic  mutation  of  sounds,  be  expected  to  have  sounded 
something  like  "  Pen "  at  that  remote  time.  "  Pen "  in  Celtic  means  head, 
and  it  is  not  altogether  impossible  that  such  a  word  might  have  been  trans- 
formed into  a  national  name. 
2IO 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

Celts  and  Slavs,  did  not  vary  very  much,  it  is  easily  explicable 
that  scarcely  a  single  ancient  place-name  can  be  found  in 
southern  Norway,  which  can  be  said  with  certainty  to  bear  a 
non-Germanic  character.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  southern 
Finns,  who  are  mentioned  so  late  as  far  on  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
had  been  a  Finno-Ugrian  or  other  non- Aryan  people,  it  is 
incredible  that  we  should  not  be  able  easily  to  point  to  foreign 


Skridfinns  hunting   [from  Olaus  Magnus] 

elements  in  the  place-names,  which  would  be  due  to  their 
language. 

Scandinavian  finds  of  skulls  of  the  Stone  Age,  and  later, 
are  so  few  and  so  casual  that  we  can  conclude  very  little  from 
them  as  regards  the  race  to  which  the  primitive  population 
belonged.  Further,  it  must  be  remarked  that  the  early  people 
of  hunters,  the  short-skulled  "  Finns,"  must  have  been  very 
few  in  number,  and  have  lived  scattered  about  the  country,  in 
contrast  to  the  later  Germanic  tribes  who  had  a  fixed  habita- 
tion. That  among  the  earliest  skulls  found  there  should  only 
be  a  few  short  ones  is,  therefore,  what  we  should  expect.  It 
must  also  be  remembered,  of  course,  that  the  proportion  of  skulls 
left  by  each  people  depends  in  a  great  degree  on  its  burial 
customs. 

We  now  come  to  the  northern  Finns,  of  whom  Ottar  gives 

211 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

a  sufficiently  detailed  description  to  enable  us  to  form  a  fairly 
accurate  picture  of  their  culture.  Since  they  were  able  to  pay 
a  heavy  annual  tribute  in  walrus  tusks,  ropes  of  walrus  hide 
and  seal  hide,  besides  other  skins  and  products  of  fishery,  we 
must  conclude  that  they  were  skilled  hunters  and  fishermen 
even  at  sea,  and  such  skill  can  only  have  been  acquired  through 
the  slow  development  and  practice  of  a  long  period,  unless 
they  learned  it  from  the  Norsemen.  But  on  the  other  hand 
they  also  kept  reindeer,  resembling  in  this  the  eastern  rein- 
deer nomads.  These  two  ways  of  living  are  so  distinct  that 
they  can  scarcely  have  been  originally  developed  in  one 
and  the  same  people,  and  we  must  therefore  conclude  that 
a  concurrence  of  several  different  cultures  has  here  taken 
place. 

Now  as  regards  whaling  and  sealing,  it  is  remarkable  that 
along  the  whole  northern  coast  of  Europe  and  Asia  there  is 
no  trace  of  any  other  race  of  seafaring  hunters.  Not  until  we 
come  to  the  Chukches,  near  Bering  Strait,  do  we  find  a  sea- 
fishery  culture,  but  this  is  borrowed  from  the  Eskimo  farther 
east,  and  originally  came  from  the  American  side  of  Bering 
Strait.  In  Novaya  Zemlya,  it  is  true,  there  is  a  small  tribe  of 
Samoyeds  who  live  by  hunting  both  on  sea  and  land,  and  who 
do  not  keep  reindeer,  but  on  the  other  hand  use  dogs  for 
sleighing ;  but  their  sea  hunting  is  primitive,  like  the  more 
casual  sealing  and  walrus  hunting  I  have  seen  practised  by 
the  reindeer  Samoyeds  along  the  shores  of  the  Kara  Sea,  with 
fire-arms,  but  without  special  appliances  and  with  extremely 
clumsy  boats.  It  is  difficult  to  see  in  this  the  remains  of  an 
older,  highly  developed  people  of  hunters. 

This  sealing  culture  which  was  found  in  Ottar's  time  in 
northernmost  Norway  and  on  the  Murman  coast  cannot,  there- 
fore, have  come  from  the  east  along  the  coast  of  Siberia,  but 
must  have  been  a  local  development,  perhaps  arising  from 
the  amalgamation  of  the  original  hunting  culture  of  these 
"  Finns  "  with  a  higher  European  culture  from  the  south. 

It    fortunately    happens    that    at    Kjelmo,    on   the    southern 

212 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

side  of  the  Varanger  Fjord,  a  rich  find  of  implements  has  been 
made,  which  must  belong  to  the  very  same  people  of  "  Finns  " 
who,  as  Ottar  says,  lived  here  and  there  along  the  coast  (of 
Finmark  and  Terfinna  Land)  as  hunters,  fishermen,  and  fowlers. 
Dr.  O.  Solberg  in  particular  has  in  the  last  few  years  made 
valuable  excavations  on  this  island.'  The  many  objects  found 
lay  evenly  distributed  in  strata,  the  thickness  of  which  shows 
that  they  must  be  the  result  of  many  centuries  of  accumulation. 
Solberg  refers  them  to  the  period  between  the  seventh  and  about 
the  eleventh  centuries. 

In  North  Varanger  many  heathen  graves  containing  im- 
plements have  been  found.  By  the  help  of  the  latter  Solberg 
has  been  able  to  show  that  the  graves  are  partly  of  the  same 
age  and  partly  of  a  somewhat  later  time  than  the  Kjelmo 
find,  and  certainly  belong  to  the  same  people.  By  comparing 
these  various  finds  we  can  form  a  picture  of  this  people's  culture 
and  its  associations. 

In  addition  to  a  number  of  bones  of  fish,  birds  and  mammals, 
the  Kjelmo  find  contains  a  variety  of  implements,  mostly  made 
of  reindeer-horn  and  bone,  which  have  been  remarkably  well 
preserved  in  the  lime-charged  sand,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  iron,  with  few  exceptions,  has  rusted  entirely  away.  There 
are  also  many  fragments  of  pottery,  baked  at  an  open  fire 
and  made  of  clay  found  on  the  island.  These  hunters  and 
fishermen,  therefore,  understood  the  art  of  the  potter  as  well 
as  that  of  the  smith,  and  thus  the  culture  of  this  northern 
district  on  the  shores  of  the  Polar  Sea  was  not  on  such  a  very 
low  level.  But  it  was  not  of  independent  growth;  the  pottery 
shows  a  connection  with  that  of  the  older  Iron  Age  in  south 
Scandinavia;  while  on  the  other  hand  a  couple  of  bronze 
objects,  especially  the  small  figure  of  a  bear,  found  in  a  grave 
in   North   Varanger,   are   typically   representative   of   the   early 

^  Cf.  O.  Solberg,  igog.  The  particulars  here  given  of  this  remarkable  find 
are  for  the  most  part  taken  from  Solberg's  interesting  paper,  the  proofs  of 
which  he  has  allowed  me  to  see.  He  has  also  been  kind  enough  to  give  me 
an  opportunity  of  examining  the  objects. 

213 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

part  of  the  Permian  Iron  Age  in  eastern  Russia  (from  the 
eighth  century).  Many  other  objects  found  in  the  graves  also 
point  to  connection  with  the  south-east,  partly  with  Russia 
or  Ottar's  Beormaland,  and  perhaps  with  Finland;  while  on 
the  other  side  there  may  have  been  communication  westwards 


7-9.     Fish-hooks      (of     reindeer-horn);     10.     potsherds;     1-6 

harpoon-points   (of  reindeer-horn),  from   Kjelmo;  less     than 

half   natural   size    [after    O.    Solberg,    1909] 

and  south-westwards  (Ottar's  route)  with  Norway.  Solberg 
has  found  marks  of  ownership  on  the  Kjelmo  implements 
which  he  shows  to  have  much  resemblance  to  those  still  in 
use  among  the  Skolte-Lapps.^  But  the  use  of  owner's  marks 
was  an  ancient  and  universal  custom  among  the  Germanic 
peoples,  and  the  Finns  probably  derived  it  from  them.  The 
owner's  marks  found  by  Solberg  bear  a  resemblance  to  many 
ancient  Germanic  ones  [cf.  Hofmeyer,  1870;  Michelson,  1853], 

1  Lapps  belonging  to  the  Greek  Church,  who  live  in  a  Russian  enclave  on 
the  Pasvik,  Varanger  Fjord.     (Tr.) 
214 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 


and    seem   rather    to   point   to    cultural    connection    with    the 
Norsemen. 

Among  the  implements  of  reindeer-horn  and  bone  in  the 
Kjelmo  find  there  are  especially  many  fish-hooks,  which  show 
that  fishing  played  an  important  part  in  the  life  of  these  people 
on  the  island,  probably 
mostly  in  the  summer 
months.  Possibly  there 
are  also  some  stone 
sinkers  which  would  show 
that  they  had  nets.  There 
are  also  fish-spears  of 
reindeer-horn,  which  were 
used  for  salmon  fishing  in 
the  rivers.  Further,  there 
is  a  quantity  of  arrow- 
heads; but  of  special  in- 
terest to  us  are  a  number 
of  harpoon-points  of  vari- 
ous forms,  which  doubt- 
less do  not  show  so 
highly  developed  a  seal- 
ing culture  as  that  of  the 
Eskimo,  but  which  are 
nevertheless  quite  in- 
genious and  bear  witness 
to  much  connection  with 
the  sea.  It  is  worth 
mentioning  that,  while  some  of  these  harpoon-points  (Figs.  2 
and  3  above)  resemble  old,  primitive  Eskimo  forms,  which  are 
found  in  Greenland,  another  still  more  primitive  form  (Fig.  i 
above)  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  harpoon-points  of  bone 
which  are  in  use,  amongst  other  places,  in  Tierra  del  Fuego,  and 
which  are  also  known  from  the  Stone  Age  in  Europe.  This 
proves  how  the  same  implements  may  be  developed  quite  in- 
dependently in  different  places. 

215 


Probable  mode  of  using  the  harpoon- 
points  from  Kjelmo 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

It  is  curious  that  among  the  same  people  such  different  forms 
of  harpoon-points  should  be  found,  from  the  most  primitive  to 
more  ingenious  ones.  This  may  tend  to  show  that  their  seal- 
ing culture  was  not  so  old  as  to  have  acquired  fixed  and  definite 
forms  like  that  of  the  Eskimo. 

It  is  remarkable  that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  harpoon- 
points  were  made  entirely  of  reindeer-horn,  without  any  iron 
tip.  Only  on  two  of  them  (see  Fig.  2,  p.  214)  are  there  marks 
of  such  a  tip,  which  was  let  in  round  the  fore-end,  but  which 
has  rusted  completely  away.  There  is  nowhere  a  sign  of  the 
use  of  any  blade  of  iron  (or  stone),  such  as  is  used  by  the  Es- 
kimo. All  these  harpoon-points  were  made  fast  to  a  thong 
by  deep  notches  at  the  base,  or  by  a  hole ;  and  they  have  either 
a  tang  at  the  base  which  was  stuck  into  a  hole  in  the  end  of 
the  harpoon-shaft,  or  else  they  have  a  hole  or  a  groove  at  the 
base,  which  was  surrounded  by  an  iron  ring,  and  into  which 
a  tang  at  the  end  of  the  shaft  was  inserted.  As  no  piece  of 
reindeer-horn  or  bone  has  been  found,  which  might  serve  as 
a  tang  for  fixing  the  harpoon-points,  it  is  possible  that  these 
were  fastened  directly  on  to  the  wooden  shaft.  With  the 
help  of  the  thong,  which  was  probably  made  tightly  fast  (on 
a  catch?)  to  the  upper  part  of  the  shaft,  the  point  was  held  in 
its  place.  But  when  the  harpoon  was  cast  into  the  animal, 
the  point  remained  fixed  in  its  flesh  and  came  away  from  the 
shaft,  which  became  loose,  and  the  animal  was  caught  by  the 
thong,  the  end  of  which  was  either  made  fast  to  the  boat  or 
held  by  the  hunter;  for  it  is  improbable  that  it  was  made  fast 
to  a  buoy  or  bladder,  which  is  an  invention  peculiar  to  the 
Eskimo.  All  the  harpoons  found  at  Kjelmo  are  remarkably 
small,  and  cannot  have  been  used  for  any  animal  larger  than 
a  seal.  Among  the  objects  found  there  is  only  one  piece  cut  off 
a  walrus  tusk,  and  none  of  the  implements  were  made  of  this 
material,  except,  perhaps,  one  arrow-head.  The  explanation  of 
this  cannot  be  merely  that  the  walrus  was  not  common  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Kjelmo;  it  shows  rather  that  these  Finns  did 
not  practise  walrus  hunting  at  all ;  for  if  they  had  done  so,  we 
216 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

should  expect  their  weapons  and  implements  to  be  made  to  a 
large  extent  of  walrus  tusk,  which  has  advantages  over  reindeer- 
horn. 

Whether  the  harpoons,  which  we  know  to  have  been  used 
later  by  the  Norsemen,  resembled  those  from  Kjelmo,  and 
whether  they  learned  the  use  of  them  from  the  Finns,  or  the 
Finns  had  them  from  the  Norsemen,  are  points  on  which  it  is 
difficult  to  form  an  opinion.  Nothing  has  been  found  which 
might  afford  us  information  as  to  the  kind  of  boats  these 
northern  sealers  used.  It  is  possible  that  they  were  light 
wooden  boats,  somewhat  like  the  Lapps'  river-boats,  and  that 
they  used  paddles.  Nor  do  the  Kjelmo  finds  tell  us  whether 
these  people  kept  tame  reindeer.  It  is  true  that  bones  of  dogs 
have  been  found,  like  the  modern  Lapp-hound;  but  whether 
they  were  used  for  herding  reindeer  cannot  be  determined,  nor 
can  they  have  been  common  on  the  island,  since  otherwise  the 
animal  bones  would  have  shown  marks  of  having  been  gnawed 
by  dogs. 

The  masses  of  bones  found  show  that  the  people  lived  on 
fish  to  a  great  extent,  many  kinds  of  birds,  among  them  the  great 
auk  (Alca  impennis),  reindeer,  fjord-seal  (Phoca  vitulina),  the 
saddleback  seal  (Ph.  groenlandica) ,  grey-seal  (Halichoerus  gry- 
phus,)'  porpoise,  beaver,  etc. 

It  will  be  seen  that  everything  we  learn  from  this  find  agrees 
in  a  remarkable  way  with  the  statements  of  Ottar,  with  the  single 
exception  that  there  are  no  indications  of  walrus  hunting,  beyond 
the  one  piece  of  tusk  mentioned." 

As  has  been  said,  this  sealing  of  the  Finns  must  be  regarded 
as  a  locally  developed  culture,  which  was  not  diffused  farther 
east  than  Ter  or  the  Kola  peninsula.  But  with  their  rein- 
deer-keeping the  opposite  is  the  case;  this  has  its  greatest 
predominance     in     Asia     and     north-eastern     Europe,     and     is 

1  Curiously  enough,  no  bones  of  the  great  bearded  seal  (Phoca  barbata) 
are  mentioned;  but  its  absence  may  perhaps  be  accidental. 

2  In  a  grave  in  North  Varanger  some  fragments  were  found,  probably  of 
walrus-tusk   [cf.  Solberg,  1909,  p.  93]. 

217 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

specially  associated  with  the  Samoyeds.  It  seems,  therefore, 
most  probable  that  it  was  brought  to  north  Scandinavia  from  the 
east. 

If,  then,  Ottar's  description  of  his  Finns'  and  Terfinns'  dif- 
fusion towards  the  east  (as  well  as  the  description  in  Egil's 
Saga)  tallies  almost  exactly  with  the  diffusion  of  the  Fish- 
ing Lapps  and  Reindeer  Lapps  of  our  time,  and  if  what 
he  tells  us  of  the  Finns'  manner  of  life  agrees  in  all  essentials 
with  what  we  know  of  the  life  of  the  Lapps  long  after  that  time, 
down  to  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  then  this  in 
itself  points  to  Ottar's  "  Finns  "  having  been  essentially  the  same 
people  as  the  present-day  Lapps.  But  to  this  may  be  added  the 
statement  of  Ottar,  who  must  have  known  the  Finns  and  their 
language  well:  that  they  and  the  Beormas  spoke  approximately 
the  same  language.  Since,  then,  the  Lapps  of  our  time — who 
live  in  the  same  district  as  Ottar's  Finns — and  the  East  Kare- 
lians — who  live  in  the  same  district,  on  the  western  side  of  the 
White  Sea,  as  Ottar's  Boermas — speak  closely  related  lan- 
guages, and  since,  further,  the  Karelians  are  a  people  with  fixed 
habitation  like  the  Beormas,  then  it  will  be  more  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  they  are  the  same  two  peoples  who  lived  in  these  dis- 
tricts at  that  early  time,  instead  of  proposing,  like  Dr.  A.  M. 
Hansen,  to  replace  them  both  by  an  unknown  people,  who  spoke 
an  unknown  language.^ 

1  Prof.  G.  Storm  [1894,  s.  97]  and  others  have  thought  that  the  Karelian- 
Finnish  name  "  Kantalaksi  "  ("  Kandalak  ")  and  "Kantalahti"  for  the  north- 
western bay  of  the  White  Sea,  and  the  town  at  its  inner  end,  may  be  a  cor- 
rupted translation  of  the  Norwegian  name  "  Gandvik  "  for  the  White  Sea,  as 
"kanta"  ("kanda")  might  be  the  Finnish-Karelian  pronunciation  of  the 
Norwegian  "  gand,"  and  the  Finnish-Karehan  "  lahti "  or  "laksi"  has  the 
same  meaning  as  the  Norwegian  "  vik  "  (bay).  Dr.  Hansen,  considering  this 
explanation  probable,  takes  it  as  proof  that  the  Karelians  must  have  come 
to  the  region  later  than  the  Norwegians,  and  later  than  the  Beormas  of  Ottar's 
time.  But  if  the  Karelians  had  immigrated  thither  after  the  Norwegians  had 
given  it  this  name,  it  would  be  equally  incomprehensible  that  they  should  not 
have  taken  their  place-names  from  the  settled  Beormas  instead  of  from  the 
casually  visiting  Norwegians.  Storm's  explanation  of  the  name  "  Kandalak " 
218 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

The  correctness  of  this  hypothesis  is  also  supported,  as  we 
have  seen,  by  the  rich  Kjelmo  find,  which  shows  that  in  Ottar's 
time  there  was  in  the  Varanger  Fjord  a  well-developed  sealing 
culture,  to  which  we  know  no  parallel  from  finds  farther  south, 
and  which  both  in  date  and  characteristics  is  distinct  from 
the  Arctic  Stone  Age.  Through  grave-finds  in  North  Var- 
anger, belonging  to  later  centuries,  we  have,  as  Solberg 
shows  [1909],  a  possible  transition  from  the  Kjelmo  culture 
to  that  of  the  Lapps  of  our  own  time,  and  there  is  thus  a  con- 
nected sequence. 

In  old  heathen  burial-places  on  the  islands  of  Sjaholmen 
and  Sandholmen,  in  the  Varanger  Fjord,  Herr  Nordvi  found 
a  number  of  skulls  and  portions  of  skeletons,  which  probably 
belonged  to  the  same  people  as  the  dwellers  on  Kjelmo.  Some 
of  these  skulls  are  in  the  collection  of  the  Anatomical  Institute 
at  Christiania,  and  have  been  described  by  Professor  J.  Heiberg 
[1878].  They  are  brachycephalic  with  a  cephalic  index  between 
82  and  85;  one  was  mesocephalic  with  an  index  of  78.  Dr.  O. 
Solberg  has  also  found  a  few  such  skulls.  Time  has  not  per- 
is, however,  in  my  opinion  highly  improbable;  the  casually  visiting  Norwe- 
gians cannot  possibly  have  given  the  settled  Beormas  or  Karelians  the  name 
of  their  own  home.  It  is  then,  according  to  my  view,  much  more  probable  that 
the  Norwegian  "Gandvik"  is  some  kind  of  "popular  etymological"  translation 
of  "  Kantalaksi,"  which  must  then  be  a  name  of  Finnish-Karelian  origin.  I 
have  asked  Prof.  Konrad  Nielsen,  of  Christiania,  about  this,  and  he  has  also 
discussed  the  question  with  Prof.  E.  Setala  and  Prof.  Wichmann,  of  Helsing- 
fors.  All  three  are  of  my  opinion.  The  meaning  of  "  Kantalaksi "  (or  "  Kan- 
nanlaksi,"  from  an  older  word  "  KanPanlaksi,"  where  the  first  part  is  genitive) 
seems  to  Nielsen  to  be  quite  certain:  "kanta "  (genitive,  "  kannan ")  is  heel, 
basis.  The  name  should,  according  to  Setala,  be  translated,  "  the  broad  bay." 
The  Norwegians  must  consequently  have  corrupted  the  first  part  of  the  name 
in  a  "  popular  etymological  "  manner  to  their  "  gand  "  (which  means  sorcery), 
and  the  latter  part  of  the  name  they  have  translated  by  "  vik  "  (bay).  The 
name  "  Gandvik  "  may  already  have  been  known  in  Norway  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, as  it  is  mentioned  by  the  heathen  skald,  Eilif  Gudrunsson,  in  Thorsdrapa. 
This  seems  to  prove  that  the  Beormas  of  the  tenth  century  (and  then  evidently 
also  of  Ottar's  time)  were  Karelians,  using  the  Karelian  name  "  Kantalaksi " 
for  the  White  Sea.  This  name  consequently  leads  to  conclusions  contrary  to 
those  of  Dr.  Hansen,  and  it  goes  against  the  correctness  of  his  views. 

219 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

mitted  me  to  subject  these  heathen  skulls  at  the  Anatomical 
Institute  to  a  detailed  examination;  I  have  only  made  a 
purely  preliminary  comparison  between  them  and  half  a  dozen 
skulls  of  modern  Reindeer  Lapps  and  Skolte-Lapps,  and  found 
that  in  certain  features  they  differ  somewhat  from  the  lat- 
ter. Doubtless  the  Lapps  and  Skolte-Lapps  of  our  time  are  very 
mixed,  partly  with  the  Finns  (Kvasns)  and  partly  with  Nor- 
wegians and  others;  but  the  typical  Reindeer  Lapp  skulls  are 
nevertheless  quite  characteristic,  and  as  they  are  somewhat 
more  brachycephalic  than  the  skulls  from  the  heathen 
graves,  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  this  is  due  to  any  such 
recent  mixture  of  race.  As  possible  differences  the  following 
may  be  noted :  the  heathen  skulls  as  compared  with  the  Reindeer 
Lapp  skulls  are  not  quite  so  typically  brachycephalic; 
seen  from  the  side  they  are  somewhat  lower  (i.e.,  the 
length-height  index  is  less,  according  to  Heiberg's  measure- 
ments it  would  be  about  as  77  to  86)  ;  the  forehead  recedes  some- 
what more  from  the  brow-ridges,  which  are  more  prominent 
than  in  the  typical  Reindeer  Lapp  skulls.  The  Skolte-Lapp 
skulls  examined  were  of  more  mixed  race,  and  were  more  meso- 
cephalic;  but  they  bore  most  resemblance  to  the  Reindeer 
Lapp  skulls,  although  some  of  them  also  showed  a  transi- 
tion to  the  heathen  skulls.  According  to  this  it  does  not 
look  as  though  the  heathens  to  whom  these  graves  belonged 
can  be  accepted  offhand  as  the  ancestors  of  our  Reindeer 
Lapps.  They  may  have  been  an  earlier,  kindred  race  who, 
to  judge  by  Ottar's  statements,  spoke  a  similar  language,  closely 
related  to  Karelian.  The  Reindeer  Lapps  must  in  that  case  have 
immigrated  later. 

It  remains  to  examine  what  place-names  can  tell  us.  It 
is  remarkable,  as  Qvigstad  [1893,  p.  56  f.]  has  pointed  out,  that 
while  the  Lapps  have  genuine  Lappish  names  for  the  inner  fjord 
coasts — e.g.,  Varanger,  Tana,  Lakse,  Porsanger,  and  Alten  fjords 
— all  their  place-names  for  the  outer  seacoasts,  even  in  Fin- 
mark,  are  of  Norwegian  origin,  if  we  except  the  names  of  a 
few  large  islands,  such  as  "  Sallam,"  for  Sdro  in  West  Fin- 
220 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

mark  and  for  Skorgero  in  Varanger,  and  "  Sievjo,"  for  Seiland 
in  West  Finmark.  It  would  therefore  seem  as  though  the 
Norwegians  arrived  on  the  outer  coasts  before  either  the  Fish- 
ing Lapps  or  Reindeer  Lapps,  while  the  latter  came  first  to 
the  inner  fjord  coasts.  This  conclusion  may  be  supported 
by  the  fact  that  the  Lapps'  names  for  sea  fish  and  sea  birds  are 
throughout  loan-words  from  Norwegian,  as  also  are  their 
words  for  appliances  belonging  to  modern  boats  and  sailing, 
which  may  indicate  that  they  learned  fishing  and  navi- 
gation from  the  Norwegians.  Their  name  for  walrus  has 
probably  also  originally  come  from  Norwegian,  but  on  the  other 
hand,  the  names  of  river  fish,  and  their  numerous  names  for  seals 
are  as  a  rule  genuine  Lappish  [Qvigstad,  1893,  p.  67]. 
This  conclusion,  however,  does  not  agree  with  Ottar's  de- 
scription, which  distinctly  says  that  "  Finns,"  who  were  hunters 
and  fishermen,  lived  scattered  along  the  coasts  of  Finmark  and 
the  Kola  peninsula,  while  the  Norwegians  (i.e.,  Norwegian 
chiefs)  did  not  live  farther  north  than  himself,  and  did  not  prac- 
tise whaling  farther  north  than,  probably,  about  Loppen.  Dr. 
Hansen  therefore  thought  to  find  in  this  a  support  for  his 
theory,  that  the  "  Finns "  of  that  time,  whom  he  called  Skrid- 
finns,  were  a  non-Aryan  primitive  people  entirely  distinct  from 
the  Reindeer  Lapps  of  our  day.  But  this  bold  hypo- 
thesis is  little  adapted  to  solve  the  difficulties  with  which  we 
are  here  confronted.  Thus,  in  order  to  explain  the  Lappish  loan- 
words from  Norwegian,  one  is  obliged  to  assume  that  these 
Skridfinnish  ancestors  of  the  Fishing  Lapps  first  lost  their 
own  language  and  their  own  place-names  and  words  for 
the  implements  they  used  and  the  animals  they  hunted,  etc., 
and  adopted  the  Norwegian  language  entirely;  and  then  again 
lost  this  language  and  adopted  that  of  the  later  immigrant  Rein- 
deer Lapps,  who  chiefly  lived  in  the  mountainous  dis- 
tricts of  the  interior.  At  this  later  change  of  language,  how- 
ever, they  retained  a  number  of  Norwegian  words,  especially 
those  used  in  navigation  and  place-names;  but  strangely 
enough  they  acquired  new,  genuinely  Lappish  names  for  certain 

221 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

large  islands,  and  moreover  they  adopted  the  many  names 
for  seals,  which  were  the  most  important  object  of  their  fish- 
ery, from  the  nomadic  Reindeer  Lapps,  who  previously 
had  known  nothing  about  such  things.  The  question  arises 
of  itself:  but  if  these  Skridfinns  were  capable  of  under- 
going all  these  remarkable  linguistic  revolutions,  why  may  they 
not  just  as  well  have  begun  by  speaking  a  language  resembling 
Lappish,  and  gradually  adopted  their  loan-words  and  place- 
names  from  Norwegian?  This  will  be  a  simpler  explanation. 
Nor,  as  we  have  seen,  is  Dr.  Hansen's  assumption  prob- 
able, that  the  Beormas  also  belonged  to  these  same 
Skridfinns,  and  spoke  their  language,  while  they  were  not  re- 
placed by  the  Karelians  until  later ;  '  but  still  less  so  is  the 
hypothesis  which  is  thereby  forced  upon  us,  that  the  Reindeer 
Lapps  came  as  reindeer  nomads  from  the  district  east  of  the 
White  Sea,  and  learned  their  language,  allied  to  Karelian, 
through  coming  in  contact  with  the  Karelians  on  their  journey 
westward  round  the  south  of  the  White  Sea.  This  contact  can- 
not have  lasted  very  long,  as  the  country  on  the  south  side  of 
the  White  Sea  is  not  particularly  favorable  to  reindeer  nom- 
ads. And  if  in  so  short  a  time  they  lost  their  old  language 
and  adopted  an  entirely  new  one,  it  will  seem  strange  that 
they  have  been  able  to  keep  this  new  language  comparatively 
unchanged  through  their  later  contact  with  the  Norwe- 
gians, to  whom  moreover  they  were  in  a  position  of  subjection. 
In  any  case  it  must  be  considerably  less  improbable  that  an 
original  people  of  hunters,  established  in  Finmark,  who  from 
the  beginning  spoke  Karelian-Lappish,  should  have  adopted 
loan-words    and    place-names    from    the    later    immigrant    and 

1  Dr.  Hansen  seeks  to  explain  the  difficulty  that  the  Beormas  near  the 
Dvina,  according  to  the  name  of  the  goddess  "  Jomale  "  in  the  tale  of  Tore 
Hund's  journey  to  Beormaland,  must  have  spoken  Karelian,  by  supposing  that 
the  Beormas  on  the  Dvina  and  those  on  the  Gulf  of  Kandalak  vyere  two 
entirely  different  peoples,  although  in  the  old  narratives  no  support  for  such 
an  assertion  is  to  be  found.  Besides,  we  have  above  found  evidence  that  the 
Beormas  at  Kandalak  also  spoke  Karelian,  because  this  name  is  a  Karelian 
word,  which  was  used  already  in  the  tenth  century. 

222 


FINNS    AND    SKRIDFINNS 

settled  Norwegians,  to  whom  they  were  subject,  and  who  were 
skilled  sailors  with  better  seagoing  boats.  In  more  or  less 
adopting  the  Norwegians'  methods  of  navigation  and  fish- 
ery, with  better  appliances,  they  also  acquired  many  loan- 
words from  them.  But  on  the  whole  v/e  must  not  attach  too 
much  weight  to  such  linguistic  evidence,  when  we  see  that  the 
Lapps  have  such  a  great  quantity  of  loan-words  from  other 
languages. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said  here,  the  following 
explanation  may  be  the  most  natural:  in  prehistoric  times 
the  coasts  and  inland  districts  of  north  Scandinavia  and 
the  Kola  peninsula  were  inhabited  by  a  wandering  people 
of  hunters,  who  belonged  to  the  same  race  or  family  as  the 
Fishing  and  Reindeer  Lapps,  and  who  were  thus  related 
to  the  Samoyeds  farther  east;  but  through  long  contact 
with  the  Karelians  on  the  White  Sea  and  with  the  Kvasns 
they  had  acquired  a  Karelian-Finnish  language.  Their  lan- 
guage, however,  as  Konrad  Neilsen  has  shown,  contains 
also  many  words  which  resemble  Samoyed,  whether  this  be 
due  to  original  kinship  or  to  later  influence.  These  people 
were  called  by  the  Norsemen  Finns,  or,  to  distinguish  them 
from  the  other  sort  of  Finns  farther  south,  Skridfinns,  be- 
cause they  were  in  the  habit  of  traveling  on  ski  in  the  winter. 
People  of  this  race  of  hunters  learned  the  domestication  of 
reindeer  from  contact  with  reindeer  nomads,  the  Samoyeds, 
farther  east.  Most  of  them  continued  their  life  of  hunting, 
sealing  and  fishing,  but  adopted  reindeer  keeping  to  some 
extent  as  an  auxiliary  means  of  subsistence.  The  Eskimo 
are  a  good  example  of  how,  in  northern  regions,  a  wandering 
people  of  hunters  may  have  a  fairly  uniform  culture  and 
language  throughout  a  much  greater  extent  of  territory  than 
is  here  in  question;  for  they  have  essentially  the  same  cul- 
ture and  language  from  west  of  Bering  Strait  to  the  east 
coast  of  Greenland.  A  tribe  related  to  these  hunter  Finns, 
who  spoke  very  nearly  the  same  language  but  lived  farther 
east,   where   there   was   certainly  hunting  to  be  had   on  land 

223 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

but  little  at  sea,  gradually  became  transformed  entirely  into 
reindeer  nomads,  and  diffused  themselves  at  a  comparatively 
late  period  over  the  mountainous  tracts  westward,  and  along 
the  Kjolen  range  southward.  As  the  Norsemen  pressed 
northward  along  the  coast  of  Nordland  they  encountered  the 
hunter  Finns  or  Fishing  Lapps.  Through  this  contact  with 
a  higher  culture  these  Lapps  learned  much,  but  on  the  other 
hand  the  Norsemen  learned  something  from  their  sealing  and 
hunting  culture,  which  was  well  adapted  to  these  surround- 
ings. Thus  a  higher  development  of  sea  hunting  arose.  Origi- 
nally the  Lapps  had  a  light  boat,  the  planks  of  which  were  fas- 
tened together  with  osiers,  with  a  paddle,  which  was  well  adapted 
to  sea  fishing,  and  for  which  they  still  have  a  genuine 
Lappish  word  in  their  language.  From  the  Norsemen 
they  learned  to  build  larger  boats  and  to  use  sails,  whence 
most  of  their  words  for  the  new  kind  of  navigation  were 
Norse  loan-words.  We  see  from  Peter  Clausson  Friis's  de- 
scription that  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  Fishing  Lapps  even 
"  had  much  profit  of  their  shipbuilding,  since  they  are  good 
carpenters,  and  build  all  the  sloops  and  ships  for  the  north- 
ward voyage  themselves  at  their  own  cost  and  to  a  consider- 
able amount.  .  .  .  They  also  build  many  boats.  .  .  ." 
In  other  words,  we  see  that  they  had  completely  adopted  the 
Norwegians'  boat-  and  ship-building,  and  with  it  the  words 
connected  therewith.  In  the  same  way  they  certainly  acquired 
better  appliances  for  sea  fishing  than  those  they  originally 
had ;  consequently  in  this  too  they  learned  of  the  Norwegians, 
and  it  was  therefore  natural  that  they  gradually  adopted 
Norse  names  for  sea  fish  too,  even  if  they  had  names  for 
them  before ;  besides  which  they  were  always  selling  this 
fish  to  the  Norwegians.  It  was  otherwise,  however,  with 
sealing,  which  had  previously  been  their  chief  employment 
on  the  sea.  In  this  they  were  superior  to  the  Norsemen, 
as  the  implements  of  the  Kjelmo  find  show,  and  here  the 
Norsemen  became  their  pupils.  For  this  reason  then  they 
kept  their  own  names  for  seal,  and  the  many  genuine 
224 


FINNS   AND   SKRIDFINNS 

Lappish  words  they  have  for  them  prove  that  this  was  an 
important  part  of  their  original  culture.  If  we  should  im- 
agine that  the  Lappish  language  came  in  at  a  comparatively 
late  period  with  the  Reindeer  Lapps,  as  Dr.  Hansen  thinks, 
we  should  be  faced  by  incomparably  greater  difficulties  in 
explaining  how  they  acquired  these  many  genuine  Lappish 
words  for  seal,  than  would  confront  us  in  explaining  how 
they  got  loan-words  for  reindeer  keeping  from  the  Norwegians, 
or  how  the  original  Fishing  Lapps  took  Norse  loan-words  for 
sea  fishing  and  the  use  of  boats.  And  now  as  regards  place- 
names,  it  is  not  improbable  that  these  were  determined  for 
later  times  principally  by  the  permanent  settlements  of  the 
Norsemen,  along  the  outer  sea-coast,  and  not  by  the  scat- 
tered Finns  (Lapps),  who  led  a  wandering  life  as  hunters 
and  fishermen,  and  who  no  doubt  were  driven  out  by  the 
Norsemen.  If  we  suppose  that  these  Finns  were  kept  away 
from  a  place,  a  fishing  center  or  a  district,  by  the  Norwegian 
settlement,  it  would  only  require  the  passing  of  one  or  two 
generations  for  them  to  forget  their  old  place-names,  and  in 
future  they  would  use  those  of  the  Norwegians  settled  there. 
But  that  they  once  had  names  of  their  own  is  shown  by 
the  genuine  Lappish  names  for  some  of  the  larger  islands. 
Within  the  fjords,  where  the  Norwegians  were  late  in  estab- 
lishing themselves,  and  where  the  Finns  (Lapps)  could  live  with 
less  interference,  it  was  different,  and  there  they  kept  their 
own  names. 

We  do  not  seem,  therefore,  to  have  any  information  or 
fact  which  is  capable  of  disproving  the  unbroken  connection 
between  Ottar's  Finns,  along  the  coasts  of  Finmark  and  Ter, 
and  the  Fishing  Lapps  of  our  time,  although  the  latter  at 
present  consist  to  a  large  extent  of  impoverished  Reindeer 
Lapps,  especially  in  West  Finmark.  The  original  culture  of 
the  Fishing  Lapps  and  the  distinction  between  it  and  that  of  the 
Reindeer  Lapps  who  immigrated  later  have  been  preserved 
to  recent  times  in  their  broader  features.  It  is  true  that  the 
Fishing  Lapp  no  longer  keeps  reindeer;  he  only  has  a  poor  cow 

225 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

or  a  few  sheep  to  milk  [cf.  A.  Helland,  1905,  p.  147] ;  but 
amongst  other  descriptions  we  see  from  that  of  the  ItaUan 
Francesco  Negri  of  his  travels  in  Norway  in  1664-5  [L.  Daae, 
1888,  p.  143]  that  the  Fishing  Lapps  of  Nordland  and  Finmark 
still  kept  reindeer  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
He  says  of  the  Finns  (i.e.,  Fishing  Lapps)  in  Finmark  that 

"  they  live  either  along  the  coast  or  in  the  forests  of  the  interior.  They  are, 
like  their  neighbors  the  Lapps,  small  in  stature,  and  they  resemble  them  in 
face,  clothing,  customs,  and  language.  The  only  way  in  which  they  differ  from 
the  Lapps  is,  that  the  latter  are  nomads,  while  the  Finns  of  this  part  have  fixed 
dwellings.  They  possess  only  a  few  reindeer  and  a  little  cattle.  They  are  also 
called  Sea  Lapps,  while  the  other  nomads  are  called  Mountain  Lapps.    .     .    ." 

This  distinction  between  Finns  (i.e.,  Fishing  Lapps)  and 
Lapps  (i.e.,  Reindeer  Lapps)  seems  to  have  been  common. 
Thus,  in  the  royal  decree  of  September  27,  1726,  both  Finns 
and  Lapps  are  mentioned,  and  in  mediaeval  maps  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  beginning  with  that  of  Claudius  Clavus, 
of  about  1426,  we  find  on  the  Arctic  Ocean  in  north-east 
Sweden  "  Findhlappi,"  and  farther  north  "  Wildhlappelandi," 
and  in  later  Clavus  maps  [Nordenskiold,  1889,  pi.  xxx]  we 
find  to  the  north-east  of  Norway  a  "  Finlappelanth,"  and 
farther  north  an  extensive  "  Pillappelanth,"  sometimes  also 
"  Phillappelanth,"  besides  a  "  Finlanth "  in  the  east.  Pillap- 
pelanth is  the  same  as  Claudius  Clavus's  "  Wildlappenlandi."  '■ 
This  word  may  be  thought  to  have  arisen  through  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  word  "  Fjeldlap "  (Mountain  Lapp), 
which  Clavus  may  have  seen  written  as  Viellappen  and  taken 
to  mean  Wild  Lapp  (he  calls  them  "  Wildlappmanni ").  But, 
as  Mr.  Qvigstad  has  pointed  out  to  me,  the  name  "  Wild 
Lapps "  for  Mountain  (Reindeer)  Lapps  is  also  found  in 
Russian.  Giles  Fletcher  (English  Ambassador  to  Russia  in 
1588)  writes:  2 


1  Cf.  Bjornbo  and  Petersen,  1904,  p.  178.  In  Michel  Beheim's  travels  in 
Norway  in  1450  "Wild  lapen"  are  also  mentioned  [cf.  Vangensten,  1908,  pp. 
17.  30  f.] 

-Kakluyt:  The  Principal  Navigations,  etc.,  1903,  iii.  p.  404. 


FINNS   AND   SKRIDFINNS 

"  The  Russe  divideth  the  whole  nation  of  the  Lappes  into  two  sortes.  The 
one  they  call  '  Nowremanskoy  Lapary,'  that  is,  the  Norvegian  Lappes.  .  .  . 
The  other  that  have  no  religion  at  all  but  live  as  bruite  and  heathenish  people, 
without  God  in  the  worlde  they  cal  '  Dikoy  Lapary,'  or  the  wilde  Lappes." 

There  is,  however,  a  possibility  that  this  Russian  name 
may  have  come  from  the  maps  or  in  a  literary  way.  In  any 
case  we  have  as  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  a  distinction 
between  Finnlapps  (i.e.,  Fishing  Lapps)  and  Mountain  Lapps 
or  Wild  Lapps,  besides  Finns  in  Finland;  but  this  shows 
at  the  same  time  that  they  must  have  been  nearly  akin,  since 
both  are  called  Lapps. 

Of  great  interest  is  Peder  Clausson  Friis's  description 
of  the  Lapps,  which  is  derived  from  the  Helgelander, 
Judge  Jon  Simonsson  (ob.  1575).  He  draws  a  distinction 
between  "  Sea  Finns,"  who  live  on  the  fjords,  and  "  Lappe 
Finns "  or  "  Mountain  Finns,"  "  who  roam  about  the  great 
mountains, 

"  and  both  sorts  are  also  called  '  Gann  Finns '  on  account  of  the  magic  they 
use,  which  they  call  '  Gan.'  The  Finns  [i.e.,  Lapps]  are  a  thin  and  skinny 
folk,  and  yet  much  stronger  than  other  men,  as  can  be  proved  by  their  bows, 
which  a  Norse  Man  cannot  draw  half  so  far  as  the  Finns  can.  They  are  very 
black  and  brown  on  their  bodies,  and  are  hasty  and  evil-tempered  folk,  as 
though  they  had  the  nature  of  bears. 

"  The  Sea  Finns  dwell  always  on  Fjords,  where  there  is  sufficient  fir  and 
spruce,  so  that  they  may  have  firing  and  timber  to  build  ships  of,  and  they 
live  in  small  houses  or  huts,  of  which  the  half  is  in  the  ground,  albeit  some 
have  fine  houses  and  rooms.  .  .  .  They  also  row  out  to  fish  like  other 
Northern  sailors,  and  sell  their  fish  to  the  merchants,  who  come  there,  for 
they  do  not  sail  to  Bergen,  and  they  are  not  fond  of  going  where  there  are 
many  people,  nor  do  people  wish  to  have  them  there,  and  they  apply  them- 
selves greatly  to  shooting  seal  and  porpoise,  that  they  may  get  their  oil,  for 
every  Finn  must  have  a  quart  of  oil  to  drink  at  every  meal.    .   .    . 

"  They  keep  many  tame  reindeer,  from  which  they  have  milk,  butter,  and 
cheese    .    .    .     they  also  keep  goats,  but  no  sheep. 

"  They  shoot  both  elks  and  stags  and  hinds,  but  for  the  most  part  reindeer, 
which  are  there  in  abundance;  and  when  one  of  them  will  shoot  reindeer,  he 
holds  his  bow  and  arrow  between  the  horns  of  a  tame  reindeer,  and  shoots 
thus  one  after  another,  for  it  is  a  foolish  beast  that  cannot  take  care  of  itself. 

"  The  Finns  are  remarkably  good  archers,  but  only  with  hand-bows,  for 
which  they  have  good  sharp  arrows,  for  they  are  themselves  smiths,  and  they 
shoot  so  keenly  with  the  same  bows  that  they  can  shoot  with  them  great  bears 

227 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

and  reindeer  and  what  they  will.  Moreover  they  can  shoot  so  straight  that  it 
is  a  marvel,  and  they  hold  it  a  shame  at  any  time  to  miss  their  mark,  and  they 
accustom  themselves  to  it  from  childhood,  so  that  the  young  Finn  may  not 
have  his  breakfast  until  he  has  shot  three  times  in  succession  through  a  hole 
made  by  an  auger. 

"  They  are  called  Gann  Finns  for  the  witchcraft  they  use,  which  they  call 
'  Gann,'  and  thence  the  sea  or  great  fjord  which  is  between  Russia  and  Fin- 
mark,      and      stretches     to 
Karelestrand,       is       called 
Gandvig. 

"  They  are  small  people 
and  are  very  hairy  on  their 
bodies,  and  have  a  bear's 
nature.   .   . 

"  The  Sea  Finns  can  for 
the  most  part  speak  the 
Norse  language,  but  not 
very  well.  .  .  .  And  they 
have  also  their  own  lan- 
guage which  they  use  among 
themselves  and  with  the 
Lapps,  which  Norse  Men 
cannot  understand,  and  it 
is  said  that  they  have  more  languages  than  one;  of  their  languages  they  have, 
however,  another  to  use  among  themselves  which  some  ^  can  understand,  so  it 
is  certain  that  they  have  nine  languages,  all  of  which  they  use  among  them- 
selves.- 


Skridfinn  Archer  [from  Olaus  Magnus] 


'  Gustav  Storm  [1881,  p.  407]  altered  "some"  to  "none";  evidently 
thinking  it  would  make  better  sense  of  this  obscure  passage;  following  him 
therefore  Magnus  Olsen,  J.  Qvigstad  and  A.  M.  Hansen  have  recently  dis- 
cussed the  passage  as  though  it  read:  "which  none  can  understand."  It  appears 
to  me  that  "  which  some  [i.e.,  a  few]  can  understand "  gives  clearer  sense. 

-  This  passage  seems  somewhat  confused  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  logi- 
cal connection  in  it.  The  first  part  is  simple;  most  of  the  Sea  Finns  (Fishing 
Lapps)  speak  Norwegian,  but  badly.  Among  themselves  and  with  the 
Mountain  Finns  (Reindeer  Lapps)  they  do  not  use  this,  but  their  own 
language.  The  language  of  the  latter  people  must  consequently  have 
been  the  same,  unless  we  are  to  make  the  improbable  assumption  that 
the  Fishing  Lapps  had  a  language  different  from  that  of  the  Reindeer 
Lapps,  which  the  latter,  however,  had  learned,  although  they  are  still  in  our 
time  very  bad  linguists,  and  speak  imperfect  Norwegian.  So  far  there  can- 
not be  much  doubt  of  the  meaning,  but  it  is  different  when  we  come  to  the 
statement  that  they  had  more  languages  than  one,  and  that  of  "  their  lan- 
guages they  have,  however,  another  to  use  among  themselves."  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  certain  examples  mentioned  by  Qvigstad  [1909]  of  the  Lapps 
228 


FINNS   AND    SKRIDFINNS 

"  Of  the  Mountain  Finns  the  same  is  to  be  understood  as  has  now  been 
noted  of  the  Sea  Finns;  the  others  [i.e.,  the  former]  are  small,  hairy  folk  and 
evil,  they  have  no  houses  and  do  not  dwell  in  any  place,  but  move  from  one 
place  to  another,  where  they  may  find  some  game  to  shoot.i  They  do  not 
eat  bread,  nor  do  the  Sea  Finns  either.  .  .  .  And  he  [the  Mountain  Finn] 
has  tame  reindeer  and  a  sledge,  which  is  like  a  low  boat  with  a  keel  upon 
it  " 

From  this  description  it  appears  with  all  desirable  clearness 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  there  was  no  noticeable  external 
difference  in  the  sixteenth  century  between  the  small  Fishing 
Lapps  and  the  small  Reindeer  Lapps,  and  on  the  other  there  was 
no  essential  difference  between  the  Lapps  of  that  time  and  the 
Finns  described  by  Ottar — we  even  find  the  decoy  reindeer  still 
used  in  the  sixteenth  century;  further,  that  the  Lapps  were 
unusually    skillful   hunters   and   archers,    for   which   they   were 

having  been  in  the  habit  of  inventing  jargons  at  the  beginning  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  give  a  natural  explanation  of  this  passage  [cf.  also  Magnus 
Olsen,  1909].  A.  M.  Hansen's  interpretation  [1907  and  1909]  that  the  or- 
iginal mother- tongue  of  the  Fishing  Lapps  (called  by  him  "  Skridfinnish  "), 
which  was  quite  different  from  that  which  they  spoke  with  the  Reindeer 
Lapps,  is  here  meant,  cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  words  of  the  text,  for  in 
that  case  they  must  have  had  two  mother-tongues;  it  is  expressly  said  that 
the  second  language  was  "their  own,"  which  they  spoke  among  themselves; 
if  it  was  only  the  language  of  the  Reindeer  Lapps,  then  it  was  precisely  not 
their  own,  nor  would  they  have  any  reason  to  speak  it  among  themselves. 
I  understand  the  passage  thus:  "of  their  [own]  language  they  have  also  an- 
other [Le.,  another  form,  variant,  or  jargon]  to  use  among  themselves,  which 
[only]  some  [of  them]  can  understand."  But  how  it  should  result  from  this 
that  "it  is  certain  that  they  have  nine  languages,"  is  difficult  to  explain;  for 
even  if  we  assume  with  Hansen  that  nine  is  an  error  for  three,  it  does  not  im- 
prove matters;  for  in  any  case  they  did  not  use  all  three  languages  including 
Norwegian  "  among  themselves."  It  is  probable  enough,  as  indeed  both 
Hansen  and  Magnus  Olsen  have  assumed,  that  there  is  a  reference  here  to 
the  magic  arts  of  the  Lapps;  and  we  must  then  suppose  that  this  mention  of 
the  nine  languages  was  an  expression  commonly  understood  at  the  time, 
which  did  not  require  further  explanation,  to  be  compared  with  the  nine 
tongue-roots  of  the  poisonous  serpent  [cf.  M.  Olsen,  1909,  p.  91].  Nine  was 
a  sacred  number  in  heathen  times  [cf.  Adam  of  Bremen's  tale  of  the  festivals 
of  the  gods  every  ninth  year  at  Upsala,  where  nine  males  of  every  living 
thing  were  offered,  etc.].  Thietmar  of  Merseburg  mentions  the  sacrificial 
festival  which  was  held  every  ninth  year  at  midwinter  at  Leire,  etc. 

'  Remark  the  resemblance  between  this  passage  and  the  mention  of  the 
Lapps  in  the  "  Historia  Norvegiae  "  (above,  p.  204). 

229 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

also  praised  by  earlier  authorities.  (We  read  in  many  places 
of  Finn  bows,  Finn  arrows,  etc.  Some  thought  that  the  man 
who  at  the  battle  of  Svolder  shot  and  hit  Einar  Tambarskelve's 
bow  so  that  it  broke,  was  a  Lapp.)  We  see,  too,  that  the  Rein- 
deer Lapp  was  not  exclusively  a  reindeer  nomad,  but  practiced 
hunting  to  such  an  extent  that  he  moved  about  for  the  sake 
of  game,  and  it  even  looks  as  if  this  was  his  chief  means  of 
livelihood,  which  is  therefore  mentioned  first.  That  the  rein- 
deer keeping  mentioned  by  Ottar  should  have  been  so  essen- 
tially different  from  that  of  the  present  day,  as  A.  M.  Hansen 
asserts,  is  difficult  to  see.  That  the  decoy  reindeer  which 
Ottar  tells  us  were  used  for  catching  wild  reindeer,  and 
which  were  so  valuable,  are  no  longer  to  be  found  in  our 
day  is  a  matter  of  course,  simply  because  the  wild  reindeer 
in  northern  Scandinavia  has  practically  disappeared  from  the 
districts  frequented  by  the  Lapps  with  their  tame  reindeer. 
Furthermore,  with  the  introduction  of  firearms,  decoy  reindeer 
became  less  necessary  for  getting  within  range  of  the  wild 
ones;  but  we  see  that  they  were  still  used  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  Lapps  continued  to  shoot  with  the  bow. 
So  long  as  there  was  abundance  of  game,  before  the  intro- 
duction of  the  rifle,  the  Reindeer  Lapp  also  lived,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  a  large  extent  by  hunting;  but  then  he  was  not  able 
to  look  after  large  herds  of  reindeer.  It  is  therefore  probable 
that  a  herd  of  600  deer,  as  mentioned  by  Ottar,  must  then 
have  been  regarded  as  constituting  wealth,  although  to  the 
Reindeer  Lapps  of  the  present  day,  who  live  exclusively  by 
keeping  reindeer,  it  would  be  nothing  very  great. ^ 

1  Ottar's  statement  that  he  owned  600  reindeer  is,  as  pointed  out  by  O. 
Solberg  [1909,  p.  127],  evidence  against  the  correctness  of  A.  M.  Hansen's 
assumption  that  the  Finns  mentioned  by  Ottar  had  learned  to  keep  reindeer 
by  imitating  the  Norwegian's  cattle  keeping,  and  that  they  kept  their  rein- 
deer on  the  mountain  pastures  in  summer,  but  collected  them  together  for 
driving  home  in  winter;  it  would  have  been  a  difficult  matter  to  manage  sev- 
eral hundred  reindeer  in  this  fashion,  unless  they  were  divided  up  into  so 
many  small  herds  that  we  cannot  suppose  them  all  to  have  been  the  property 
of  one  man.  Large  herds  of  many  deer  must  have  been  half  wild  and  have 
been  kept  in  a  similar  way  to  the  Reindeer  Lapps'  reindeer  now. 
230 


FINNS   AND   SKRIDFINNS 

Those  of  the  modem  Lapps  whose  manner  of  life  most 
reminds  us  of  Ottar's  "  Finns  "  are  perhaps  the  so-called  Skolte 
Lapps  on  the  south  side  of  the  Varanger  Fjord.  Helland 
[1905,  p.  157]  says  of  them:  "They  have  few  reindeer  and 
keep  them  not  so  much  for  their  flesh  and  milk  as  for  transport. 
Their  principal  means  of  subsistence  is  salmon  and  trout  fishing 
in  the  river,  and  a  little  sea  fishing  in  the  fjord  on  Norwegian 
ground.     They  are  also  hunters." 

We  must  suppose  that  the  "  Finns  "  who  according  to  Ottar, 
or  to  Alfred's  version  of  him,  paid  tribute  in  walrus  hide 
ropes,  etc.,  lived  by  the  sea  and  engaged  in  sealing  and  walrus 
hunting,  and  in  any  case  they  cannot  have  kept  reindeer 
except  as  a  subsidiary  means  of  subsistence,  like  the  Fish- 
ing Lapps  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  But 
Alfred's  expressions  do  not  exclude  the  possibility  of  there 
having  been  amongst  the  "  Finns "  some  who  were  reindeer 
nomads  like  the  Reindeer  Lapps  of  our  time.  That  they 
already  existed  at  that  time  and  somewhat  later  seems  to 
result  from  the  statements  in  the  sagas  of  the  sheriffs  of 
Halogaland  (e.g.,  Thorulf  Kveldulfsson),  who  in  order  to  collect 
the  "  Finn  "  tribute  traveled  into  the  interior  and  up  into  the 
mountains.  It  cannot  have  been  only  wandering  hunters  who 
paid  this  tribute,  and  they  must  certainly  also  have  had  herds 
of  reindeer. 

That  the  Lapps  have  degenerated  greatly  as  hunters  and 
sealers  in  the  last  few  centuries,  and  that  the  Fishing  Lapps 
no  longer  enjoy  anything  like  the  same  prosperity  as  they  did 
in  Ottar's  time,  and  even  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century, 
is  easily  explained.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  the  game  both  in 
the  sea  and  on  land  has  decreased  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
can  no  longer  support  anyone,  and,  on  the  other,  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  a  people  originally  of  hunters  loses  its  skill 
in  the  chase  to  a  considerable  extent  through  closer  contact 
with  European  civilization,  while  at  the  same  time  it  be- 
comes impoverished.  How  this  comes  about  may  be  accurately 
observed  among  the  Eskimo  of  Greenland  in  our  time.     So  long 

231 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

as  the  Lapps  were  heathens,  as  in  Peder  Clausson  Friis's  time, 
and  were  still  without  firearms,  and,  what  is  perhaps  equally 
important,  without  fire-water,  and  not  burdened  with  schooling 
and  book  learning,  they  retained  their  old  hunting  culture 
and  their  hereditary  skill  in  sealing  and  hunting;  but  with 
the  new  culture  and  its  claims,  the  new  objects,  demands, 
and  temptations  of  life,  their  old  accomplishments  suf- 
fered more  or  less;  nor  were  they  any  longer  held  in  such 
high  esteem  that  the  Lapp  child  had  to  shoot  three  times 
running  through  an  auger  hole  before  he  might  have  his 
breakfast.  And  just  as  the  Eskimo  of  the  west  coast  of  Green- 
land have  been  obliged  to  take  more  and  more  to  fishing  and 
bird  catching,  which  were  looked  down  upon  by  the  old  har- 
pooners,  so  have  our  Fishing  Lapps  become  more  and  more 
exclusively  fishermen. 


232 


Snaefells  Glacier  in  Iceland 


CHAPTER   VII 


THE  VOYAGES   OF  THE   NORSEMEN:   DISCOVERY 
OF  ICELAND  AND   GREENLAND 


SHIPBUILDING 

THE  discovery  of  the  Faroes  and  Iceland  by  the  Celts 
and  the  Irish  monks,  and  their  settlement  there,  give 
evidence  of  a  high  degree  of  intrepidity;  since  their  fragile 
boats  were  not  adapted  to  long  voyages  in  the  open  sea,  to 
say  nothing  of  carrying  cargoes  and  keeping  up  any  regular 
communication.  Nor  did  they,  in  fact,  make  any  further 
progress;  and  neither  the  Irish  nor  the  Celts  of  the  British 
Isles,  as  a  whole,  ever  became  a  seafaring  people.  It  was 
the  Scandinavians,  and  especially  the  Norwegians,  who  were 
the  pioneers  at  sea;  who  developed  an  improved  style  of 
shipbuilding,  and  who,  with  their  comparatively  good  and 
seaworthy  craft,  were  soon  to  traverse  all  the  northern  waters 
and  open  up  a  prospect  into  a  new  world,  whereby  the  geo- 
graphical ideas  of  the  times  should  undergo  a  complete 
transformation.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  Phoenicians  in 
their  day  ventured  out  into  the  open  ocean  far  from  land; 
but  this  lacks  proof  and  is  improbable.    The  Norwegians  are  ^ 

233 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

the  first  people  in  history  who  definitely  abandoned  the  coast 
sailing  universally  practised  before  their  time,  and  who  took 
navigation  away  from  the  coasts  and  out  on  to  the  ocean. 
From  them  other  people  have  since  learnt. 

First  they  crossed  the  North  Sea  and  sailed  constantly  to 
Shetland,  the  Orkneys,  North  Britain,  and  Ireland;  then  to  the 
Faroes,  Iceland,  and  Greenland,  and  at  last  they  steered 
straight  across  the  Atlantic  itself,  and  thereby  discovered 
North  America.  We  do  not  know  how  early  the  passage  of 
the  North  Sea  originated;  but  probably,  as  we  have  seen, 
it  was  before  the  time  of  Pytheas  and  much  earlier  than 
usually  supposed.  J.  E.  Sars  [1877,  i.  (2nd  ed.),  p.  191]  con- 
cluded on  other  grounds  that  it  was  at  a  very  remote  period,  and 
long  before  the  Viking  age. 

The  beginning  of  the  more  important  Viking  expeditions  is 
usually  referred  to  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  or,  indeed, 
to  a  particular  year,  793.  But  we  may  conclude  from  historical 
sources  '  that  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  Viking  voyages  cer- 
tainly took  place  over  the  North  Sea  from  Denmark  to  the 
land  of  the  Franks,  and  doubtless  also  to  southern  Britain,  ^ 
and  perhaps  by  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  the 
Norwegians  had  established  themselves  in  Shetland  and  even 
plundered  the  Hebrides  and  the  north-west  of  Ireland  (in 
612).^     We    know    further    from    historical    sources    that    as 

^Gregory  of  Tours;  "  Gesta  Francorum";  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems 
"Beowulf,"  "Widsff,"  etc. 

=  Zeuss,  1837,  p.  501;  Mullenhoff,  1889,  pp.  18  f.,  95  f.;  A.  Bugge,  1905,  pp. 
10  f. 

3  Cf.  H.  Zimmer  [1891,  1893,  p.  223]  and  A  Bugge  [1905,  pp.  11  f.].  In  a 
life  of  St.  Gildas,  on  an  island  off  the  Welsh  coast  ["  Vita  Gildae,  auctore 
Carodoco  Lancarbanensi,"  p.  109],  we  read  that  he  was  plundered  by  pirates 
from  the  Orcades  Islands,  who  must  be  supposed  to  have  been  Norwegian 
vikings.  This  is  said  to  have  taken  place  in  the  sixth  century,  but  the  MS. 
dates  from  the  twelfth.  The  island  of  Sark,  east  of  Guernsey,  was  laid  waste 
by  the  Normans,  according  to  the  "  Miracula  Sancti  Maglorii,"  cap.  5.  [A.  de 
la  Borderie  "  Histoire  de  Bretagne,"  Critique  des  Sources,  iii.  13,  p.  236.]  This 
part  of  the  "Miracula"  was  composed,  according  to  Borderie,  before  851; 
but  even  in  the  saint's  lifetime  (sixth  century)  the  "  Miracula  "  places  an  at- 

234 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

early    as   the    third    century    and    until   the    close    of   the    fifth 
century,     the    roving    Eruli    sailed    from     Scandinavia,    some- 
times in  company  with  Saxon  pirates,  over  the  seas  of  western 
Europe,   ravaging   the   coasts   of   Gaul   and   Spain,   and   indeed 
penetrating  in  455  into  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  Lucca  in 
Italy.'     From   these   historical   facts   we   are   able   to   conclude 
that  long  before  that  time  there  had  been  intercommunication 
by   sea   between   the    countries    of    northern    Europe.     Scandi- 
navia,   especially    Norway,    was    in    those    days    very    sparsely 
inhabited,   and    all   development   of   culture   that   was   not   due 
to  direct  influence   from  without  must  have  taken  place  with 
extreme    slowness   at    such    an    early   period    of    history,    even 
where    intercourse    was   more   active   than    in   the    North.     As 
we  are  not  acquainted  with  any  other  European  people  who  at 
that  time  possessed  anything  like  the  necessary  skill  in  navi- 
gation to  have  been  the  instructors  of  the   Scandinavians,  we 
are  forced  to   suppose  that  it  was  after  centuries  of  gradual 
training  and  development  in  seamanship  that  the  latter  attained 
the  superiority  at  sea  which  they  held  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Viking  age,  when  they  took  large   fleets  over  the   North   Sea 
and  the  Arctic  Ocean  as  though  these  were  their  home  waters. 
When  we  further  consider  how,   since   that  time,  the  type   of 
ships,  rigging,  and  sails  has  persisted  almost  without  a  change 
for    eleven    hundred    years,    to   the    ten-oared    and    eight-oared 
boats  of  our  own  day — which  until  a  few  years  ago  were  the 
almost    universal    form    of    boat    in    the    whole    of    northern 
Norway — it  will  appear  improbable  that  the  type  of  ship  and 
the  corresponding  skill  in  seamanship  required  a  much  shorter 
time  for  their  development.^ 

tack  by  the  "  Normans "  [cap.  2].  It  has  been  suggested  [cf.  Vogel,  "  Die 
Normannen  und  das  Frankische  Reich,"  1896,  p.  353]  that  this  might  refer  to 
Saxon   pirates;   but  doubtless   incorrectly. 

1  Cf.  Zeuss,  1837,  pp.  447  f.;  Miillenhoff,  i88g,  p.  ig. 

-  What  an  enormous  time  such  a  development  requires  is  demonstrated 
by  the  history  of  the  rudder.  The  most  ancient  Egyptian  boats  were  evi- 
dently steered  by  two  big  oars  aft,  one  on  each  side.    These  oars  were  later, 

235 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 


The  first  literary  mention  of  the  Scandinavians'  boats 
occurs  in  Tacitus,  who  speaks  of  the  fleets  and  rowing  boats 
without  sails  of  the  Suiones  (see  above,  p.  no).  But  long 
before  that  time  we  find  ships  commonly  represented  on  the 
rock-carvings   which   are   especially   frequent   in   Bohuslan   and 

in  the  districts  east  of  Christi- 
ania  Fjord.  If  these  were  nat- 
uralistic representations  they 
would  give  us  valuable  informa- 
tion about  the  form  and  size  of 
the  ships  of  those  remote  times. 
But  the  distinct  and  character- 
istic features  which  are  common 
to  all  these  pictures  of  ships,  from 
Bohuslan  to  as  far  north  as  Beit- 
staden,  show  them  to  be  conven- 
tional figures,  and  we  cannot 
therefore  draw  any  certain  con- 
clusions from  them  with  regard 
to  the  appearance  of  the  ships. 

Dr.  Andr.  M.  Hansen  [1908],  with  his 
usual  imaginativeness,  has  pointed  out  the 
resemblance  between  the  rock-carvings 
and  the  vase-paintings  of  the  Dipylon  pe- 
riod in  Attica,  and  thinks  there  is  a  direct 
connection  between  them.  It  appears 
highly  probable  that  the  style  of  the  rock-carvings  is  not  a  wholly  native 
Northern  art,  but  is  due  more  or  less  to  influence  from  the  countries  of  the 
Mediterranean  or  the  East,  in  the  same  way  as  we  have  seen  that  the  burial 
customs  (dolmens,  chambered  barrows,  etc.)  came  from  these.  Dr.  Hansen 
has,  however,  exaggerated  the  resemblance  between  the  Dipylon  art  and  the 
rock-carvings;  many  of  the  resemblances  are  clearly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 


Rock-carvings  in  Bohuslan 


in  Egyptian  and  Greek  ships,  transformed  into  two  rudders  or  rudder  oars, 
one  on  each  side  aft  (see  illustrations,  pp.  7,  23,  35,  48).  On  the  Viking  ships 
we  find  only  one  of  these  rudders  on  the  starboard  side  but  fixed  exactly  in 
the  same  way.  Then  at  last,  towards  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  rudder 
was  moved  to  the  stern-post.  But  the  rudder  of  the  boats  of  northern  Nor- 
way has  still  a  "styrvold"  (instead  of  an  ordinary  tiller),  which  is  a  rem- 
nant of  the  rudder  of  the  Viking  ships. 
236 


\    (S/tiilhiiiiinimitifriiimii.miKimUimU.frrJ 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

same  subjects  are  represented  (e.g.,  spear  throwing,  fighting  with  raised  weap- 
ons, rowers,  horsemen,  chariots,  etc.);  it  may  also  be  mentioned  that  such 
signs  as  the  wheel  or  the  solar  symbol  (the  eye)  are  common  to  wide  regions 
of  culture.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  differences  in  other  important  fea- 
tures; thus,  the  mode  of  representing  human  beings  is  not  the  same,  as  asserted 
by  Hansen ;  the  characteristic  "  Egyptian "  style  of  the  men  depicted  in  the 
Dipylon  art,  with  broad,  rectangular  shoulders  and  narrow  waists,  is  just  what 
one  does  not  find  in  the  rock-carvings,  where  on  the  contrary  men  are  depicted 
in  the  more  naturalistic  style  which  one  recognizes  among  many  other  peoples 
in  a  savage  state  of  culture.  Hansen  also  lays  stress  upon  resemblances  with 
figures  from  Italy.  But  what  most  interests  us  here  is  the  number  of  represen- 
tations of  ships  in  the  rock-carvings,  which  for  the  most  part  show  a  remark- 
able uniformity  as  regards  their  es- 
sential features,  while  they  differ  from  .  jy  Lt  ^ 
all  pictures  of  ships,  not  only  in  the  " '" 
art  of  the  Dipylon  and  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean generally,  but  also  in  that  of 
Egypt  and  Assyria-Babylonia.  The  Rock-carving  at  Bjornstad  in  Skje- 
boats  or  ships  depicted  in  the  rock-  berg,  Smalenene.  The  length  of  the 
carvings  are  so  strange  looking  that  ship  is  nearly  fifteen  feet  [from  a  pho- 
doubts  have  been  expressed  whether  tograph  by  Professor  G.  Gustafson] 
they    are    boats    or    ships    at    all,    or 

whether  it  is  not  something  else  that  is  intended,  sledges,  for  instance.  There 
is  no  indication  of  the  oars,  which  are  so  characteristic  of  all  delineations  of 
ships  in  Greece,  Italy,  Egypt,  and  Assyria;  nor  is  there  any  certain  indication 
of  sails  or  rudders,  which  are  also  characteristic  of  Southern  art.  Moreover, 
the  lowest  line,  which  should  answer  to  the  keel,  is  often  separated  at  both 
ends  from  the  upper  line,  which  should  be  the  top  strake.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  numerous  figures  in  the  "  boats "  can  with  difficulty  be  re- 
garded as  anything  but  men,  and  most  probably  rowers,  sometimes  as  many  as 
fifty  in  number,  besides  the  unmistakable  figures  of  men  standing,  some  of 
them  armed;  and  it  must  be  added  that  if  these  pictures  represented  nothing 
but  sledges,  it  is  inconceivable  that  there  should  never  be  any  indication  of 
draught  animals.  But  one  remarkable  point  about  these  numerous  carvings  is 
the  typical  form  both  of  the  prow  and  of  the  stern-post.  With  comparatively 
few  exceptions  the  prow  has  two  turned-up  beaks,  which  are  difficult  to  under- 
stand. It  has  been  attempted  to  explain  one  of  these  as  an  imitation  of  the 
rams  of  Greek  and  Phoenician  warships;  but  in  that  case  it  ought  to  be  directed 
forward  and  not  bent  up.  The  shape  of  the  stern-post  is  also  curious:  for  what 
one  must  regard  as  the  keel  of  the  ship  has  in  all  these  representations  a  blunt 
after  end,  curiously  like  a  sledge-runner;  while  the  upper  line  of  the  ship, 
which  should  correspond  to  the  top  strake,  is  bent  upward  and  frequently 
somewhat  forward,  in  a  more  or  less  even  curve,  sometimes  ending  in  a  two- 
or  three-leaved  ornament,  somewhat  like  the  stern-post  of  Egyptian  ships  (see 
p.  23).     This  mode  of  delineation  became  so  uniformly  fixed  that  besides  oc- 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 


Bronze   knife   with   representation   of 

a  ship,  of  the  later  Bronze  Age. 

Denmark 


curring  in  almost  all  the  rock-carvings  it  appears  again  in  an  even  more  care- 
fully executed  form  in  the  knives  of  the  later  Bronze  Age.     Such  a  type  of 

ship,  with  a  keel  ending  bluntly  aft, 
is  not  known  in  ancient  times  in  Eu- 
rope, either  in  the  Mediterranean  or  in 
the  North.i  Egyptian,  Assyro-Phoe- 
nician,  Greek,  and  Roman  representa- 
tions of  ships  (see  pp.  7,  23,  35,  48,  241, 
242),  all  show  a  keel  which  bends  up 
to  form  a  continuously  curved  stern- 
post;  and  both  the  Nydam  boat  from 
Schleswig  (p.  no)  and  the  Norwegian 
Viking  ships  that  have  been  dis- 
covered, agree  in  having  a  similar  turned-up  stern-post,  which  forms  a  con- 
tinuous curve  from  the  keel  itself  (pp.  246,  247) ;  it  is  the  same  with  delinea- 
tions of  the  later  Iron  Age  (p.  243).  Even  Tacitus  expressly  says  that  the 
ships  of  the  Suiones  were  alike  fore  and  aft.  The  only  similar  stem-posts  to 
be  found  are  possibly  the  abruptly  ending  ones  of  the  ship  and  boats  on  the 
gravestone  from  Novilara  in  Italy;  but  here  the  prows  are  quite  unlike  those 
of  the  rock-carvings. 

As  therefore  this  representation  of  the  ship's  stern-post  does  not  corre- 
spond to  any  knovm  type  of  ancient  boat  or  ship,  as  it  is  also  difficult  to  un- 
derstand how  the  people  of  the  rock-carvings  came  to  represent  a  boat  with 
two  upturned  prows,  and  as  further  there  is  a  striking  similarity  between  the 
lov/est  line  of  the  keel  and  a  sledge-runner,  one  might  be  tempted  to  believe 
that  by  an  association  of  ideas  these 
delineations  have  become  a  combina- 
tion of  ship  and  sledge.  These  rock- 
carvings  may  originally  have  been 
connected  with  burials,  and  the  ship, 
which  was  to  bear  the  dead,  may 
have  been  imagined  as  gliding  on  the 
water,  on  ice,  or  through  the  air,  to 
the  realms  of  the  departed,  and  thus 
unconsciously  the  keel  may  have 
been  given  the  form  of  a  runner.  It 
may  be  mentioned  as  a  parallel  that 
in   the    "  kennings "    of   the    far   later 


Carvings   on   a    gravestone 
Novilara,   Italy 


at 


poetry  of  the  Skalds  a  ship  is  called  for  instance,  the  "  ski  "  of  the  sea,  or,  vice- 
versa,  a  ski  or  sledge  may  be  called  the  ship  of  the  snow.     The  sledge  was, 


1  The  types  of  Scandinavian  craft  it  most  reminds  one  of  are  of  the  fjord 
and    Nordland   "jagt,"    in   western   and   northern   Norway,   and    the    "pram," 
"vhich  is  now  in  use  in  south-eastern  Norway.     It  is  conceivable  that  it  repre- 
sents an  ancient  boat-type  resembling  the  form  of  the  "  jagt." 
238 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

moreover,  the  earliest  form  of  contrivance  for  transport.  In  this  connection 
there  may  also  be  a  certain  interest  in  the  fact  that  in  Egypt  the  mummies  of 
royal  personages  were  borne  to  the  grave  in  funereal  boats  upon  sledges.  That 
the  rock-carvings  wrere  originally  associated  with  burials  may  also  be  in- 
dicated by  the  fact  that  the  carved  stones  of  the  Iron  Age,  which  in  a  way 
took  the  place  of  the  rock-carvings,  frequently  represent  the  dead  in  boats  on 
their  way  to  the  underworld  or  the  world  beyond  the  grave  (see  illustration,  p. 
243).  That  ships  played  a  prominent  part  in  connection  with  the  dead  appears 
also  from  the  remarkable  burial-places  formed  by  stones  set  up  in  the  form  of 
a  ship,  the  so-called  ship-settings,  in  Sweden  and  the  Baltic  provinces,  as  well 
as  in  Denmark  and  North  Germany. 
These  belong  to  the  early  Iron  Age. 
The  usual  burial  in  a  ship  covered  by 
a  mound,  in  the  later  Iron  Age,  is 
well  known.  We  seem  thus  to  be 
able  to  trace  a  certain  continuity  in 
these  customs.  A  certain  continuity 
even  in  the  representation  of  ships 
may  also  be  indicated  by  the  striking 
resemblance  that  exists  between  the 
two-  or  three-leaved,  lily-like  prow 
ornament  on  the  rock-carvings,  on 
the  knives  of  the  later  Bronze  Age, 
on  the  gravestone  of  Novilara,  and  on 
such  late  representations  as  some  of 
the  ships  of  the  Bayeux  tapestry.  The 
upturned  prows  of  the  ships  of  the 
rock-carvings  also  frequently  end  in 
spirals  like  the  stern-post  on  the  stone  at  Stenkyrka  in  Gotland  (p.  243),  and 
both  prows  and  stern,  on  other  stones  of  the  later  Iron  Age  from  Gotland. 


DVX--  - 

^& 

y-RG^RS 

i<y^^^ 

^^9 

S 

^f&-^^^ 

■'~^^-^-'->Ji:::ii— ^. 

--~^'~ 

Ship  from  the  Bayeux  tapestry 
(eleventh  century),  and  rock-carving 


All  are  agreed  in  referring  the  rock-carvings  to  the  Bronze 
Age;  but  while  O.  Montelius,  for  example,  puts  certain  of  them 
as  early  as  between  1450  and  1250  B.C.,  A.  M.  Hansen  has 
sought  to  bring  them  down  to  as  late  as  500  B.C.  In  any  case 
they  belong  to  a  period  that  is  long  anterior  to  the  beginning 
of  history  in  the  North.  From  whence  and  by  what  route 
this  art  came  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Along  the  same  line  of 
coasts  by  which  the  megalithic  graves,  dolmens,  and  chambered 
barrows  made  their  way  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  North 
(see  p.  22)  rock-carvings  are  also  to  be  found  scattered 
through    North    Africa,    Italy    (the    Alps),    Southern    France, 

239 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Spain,  Portugal,  Brittany,  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland.  It 
may  be  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  practice  of  engraving 
figures  on  stone  came  first  from  Egypt  at  the  close  of  the  Stone 
Age;  but  the  rock-carvings  of  the  vi^est  coast  of  Europe  and 
of  the  British  Isles  are  distinct  in  their  whole  character  from 
those  of  Scandinavia,  and  do  not  contain  representations  of 
ships  ^  and  men,  which  are  such  prominent  features  of  the 
latter;  but  common  to  both  are  the  characteristic  cup- 
markings,  besides  the  wheel,  or  solar  signs  (with  a  cross),  foot- 
soles,  and  also  spirals.  There  may  thus  be  a  connection,  but 
we  must  suppose  that  the  rock-carvings  underwent  an  inde- 
pendent development  in  Scandinavia  (like  the  Bronze  Age 
culture  as  a  whole) — if  it  could  not  be  explained  by  an  eastern 
communication  with  the  south  through  Russia,  which,  however, 
is  not  probable — and  as  the  representation  of  ships  came  to 
be  so  common,  we  must  conclude  it  to  be  here  connected  with 
a  people  of  strong  seafaring  tendencies.  Since  the  ships 
depicted  on  the  rock-carvings  cannot,  so  far  as  we  know  at 
present,  have  been  direct  imitations  of  delineations  of  ships 
derived  from  abroad — even  though  they  may  be  connected  with 
forms  of  religion  and  burial  customs  that  were  more  or  less  im- 
ported— we  are,  as  yet  at  least,  bound  to  believe  that  the  people 
who  made  the  rock-carvings  had  boats  or  ships  which  furnished 
the  models  for  their  conventional  representations.  And  when 
we  see  that  these  people  went  to  work  to  engrave  on  the 
rocks  pictures  of  ships  which  are  fifteen  feet  in  length,  and 
have  as  many  as  fifty  rowers,^  we  are  bound  to  believe  that 
in  any  case  they  were  able  to  imagine  ships  of  this  size.  It  is 
also   remarkable   that   rock-carvings   are   most    numerous   pre- 

1  Professor  Gustafson  informed  me  that  in  the  summer  of  1909  he  saw  in 
a  megalithic  grave  in  Ireland  a  representation  of  a  ship,  which  might  have 
some  resemblance  to  a  Scandinavian  rock-carving;  but  he  regarded  this  as 
very  uncertain. 

-  Professor  G.   Gustafson  has  in  recent  years  examined  and  figured  many 
Norwegian  rock-carvings  for  the  University  of  Christiania.    The  illustration 
reproduced  here   (p.   237)   is  from  a  photograph  which   he  has   kindly  com- 
municated to  me. 
240 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

cisely  in  those  districts,  Viken  and  Bohuslan,  where  we  may 
expect  that  the  seamanship  of  the  Scandinavians  first  attained 
a  higher  degree  of  perfection  if  it  was  first  imported  from  the 
south-east.  With  this  would  also  agree  Professor  Montelius's 
theory:  that  at  a  very  much  earlier  time,  about  the  close  of 
the  Stone  Age,  direct  communication  already  existed  between 
the  west  coast  of  Sweden  and  Britain,  which  he  concludes  from 
remarkable  points  of  correspondence  in  stone  cists  with  a  hole 
at  the  end,  and  other  features. 


Shipment  of  tribute.     From  the  bronze  doors  from  Babavat,  Assyria 

[British  Museum] 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  the  Scandinavians  at  the  outset 
arrived  at  their  boats  and  ships,  such  as  we  know  them  from 
the  boats  found  at  Nydam  in  Schleswig  and  the  Viking  ships 
discovered  in  Norwegian  burial  mounds.  They  are  of  the  same 
type  that  in  Norway,  in  the  districts  of  Sunnmor  and  Nordland, 
has  persisted  to  our  time,  and  they  show  a  mastery  both  in 
their  lines  and  in  their  workmanship  that  must  have  required 
a  long  period  for  its  development.  From  the  accounts  of  many 
contemporaries,  as  well  as  from  archaeological  finds,  we  know 
that  even  so  late  as  the  first  and  second  centuries  A.D.  large 
canoes,  made  of  dug-out  tree  trunks,  were  in  common  use  on 
the  north  coast  of  Germany  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Rhine, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  original  form  of 
boat  in  the  north  and  west  of  central  Europe.  In  England 
similar  canoes  made  of  the  dug-out  trunks  of  oaks  have  been 
found  with  a  length  of  as  much  as  forty-eight  feet;  they  have 
also   been    found    in    Scotland,    in   Bremen,    and    in   Schleswig- 

241 


IN  NORTHERN   MISTS 

Holstein  (in  many  cases  over  thirty-eight  feet  long),  with 
holes  for  oars.  It  is  related  of  the  Saxons  north  of  the  Elbe, 
who  at  an  early  period  made  piratical  raids  on  coasts  to  the 
south  of  them,  that  they  sailed  in  small  boats  made  of  wicker- 
work,  with  an  oaken  keel  and  covered  with  hides.  Besides 
these  they  clearly  had  dug-out  canoes;  but  in  the  third 
century  A.D.  it  is  recorded  that  they  built  ships  on  the  Roman 
model.  The  only  people  north  of  the  Mediterranean  of  whom 
we  know  with  certainty  that  they  had  their  own  well- 
developed  methods  of  shipbuilding  are,  as  already  mentioned 
(p.  39),  the  Veneti  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loire,  whose  powerful 
and    seaworthy   ships   of   oak   are   described    by   Caesar.     That 

the  Scandinavians  should 
have  derived  their  methods 
from  them  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  probable,  unless 
it  can  be  proved  that  the 
intervening  peoples  pos- 
sessed something  more  than 
primitive    canoes    and    cora- 

Warship  of  Ramses  III.,  circa  1200  B.C.    ^'^^^-      "^e       must       therefore 

believe,  either  that  the 
Scandinavians  developed  their  methods  of  shipbuilding  quite 
independently,  or  that  they  had  communication  with  the 
Mediterranean  by  some  other  route  than  the  sea.  Now 
in  many  important  features  there  is  such  a  great  resem- 
blance between  the  Norwegian  Viking  ships  and  pictorial 
representations  of  Greek  ships,  and  of  even  earlier  Egyp- 
tian and  Assyrian  ships,  that  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  some  connection  must  have  existed.  For 
instance,  the  resemblance  between  the  strikingly  lofty  prows 
and  stem-posts,  sometimes  bent  back,  with  characteristic 
ornamentation,  and  animal  heads,  which  are  to  be 
found  in  Egyptian  and  Ass5^ian  representations,  cannot  be 
explained  offhand  as  coincidences  occurring  in  types  inde- 
pendently developed.  They  are  decorations,  and  cannot  have 
242 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 


contributed  to  the  seaworthiness  of  the  boats  or  had  any 
practical  purpose,  unless  the  animal  heads  were  intended 
to  frighten  enemies  (?).  It  is  true  that  lofty  and  remarkable 
prows  are  to  be  found  in  boats  from  such  a  widely  sepa- 
rated region  of  culture  as  Polynesia;  but  in  the  first  place 
it  is  not  impossible  that  here,  too,  there  may  be  a  distant 
connection  with  the  Orient,  and  in  the  second,  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  Scandinavian 
forms  of  ship  are 
so  characteristic, 
compared  with  those 
of  other  parts  of  the 
world,  that  we 
necessarily  place 
them  apart  as  be- 
longing to  a  distinct 
sphere  of  culture. 
Another  character- 
istic of  these  boats 
and  ships  is  the  oars 
with  rowlocks  (open 
or  closed),  instead  of 
paddles.  The  rudder 
of  the  Viking  ship 
(see  illustrations, 
pp.  246,  247,  248-250) 
is  also  in  appearance  and  mode  of  use  so  remarkably  like  the 
Egyptian  rudder  of  as  early  as  circa  1600  B.C.  (see  illustrations, 
pp.  7,  23),  and  the  Greek  (p.  48),^  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
believe  that  this,  together  with  all  the  other  resemblances, 
were  independent  discoveries  of  the  North.  The  square  sail 
and  mast  of  the  Scandinavian  boat  also  closely  resemble  those  of 
Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Greek,  and  Italian  ships  as  depicted. 

1  The  Viking  ships  had,  however,  only  one  rudder  on  the  starboard  side, 
while  the  ancient  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  and  Greek  ships  had  two  rudders,  one 
on  each  side. 

243 


Stone  from  Stenkyrka  in  Gotland  (ninth  century) 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  communication  which  origi- 
nally produced  these  resemblances  did  not  take  place  by  the 
sea  route,  round  the  coasts  of  western  Europe,  but  overland 
between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  It  is  thus  possible 
that  the  Scandinavian  type  of  boat  first  began  to  be  developed 
in  the  closed  waters  of  the  Baltic.  It  is  here  too  that  the  boats 
of  the  Scandinavians  (Suiones)  are  first  mentioned  in  literature 
by  Tacitus,  and  it  is  here  that  the  earliest  known  boats  of 
Scandinavian  type  have  .been  found;  these  are  the  three 
remarkable  boats  of  about  the  third  century  A.  D.  which  were 
discovered  at  Nydam  near  Flensburg.  The  best  preserved  of 
them  (p.  no)  is  of  oak,  about  seventy-eight  feet  long,  with 
fourteen  oars  on  each  side,  and  it  carried  a  crew  of  about 
forty  men.  The  boats  terminated  in  exactly  the  same  way 
fore  and  aft,  agreeing  with  what  Tacitus  says  of  the  boats 
of  the  Suiones;  and  they  could  be  rowed  in  both  directions. 
They  had  rowlocks  with  oar-grummets  like  those  in  use  on  the 
west  coast  and  in  the  northern  part  of  Norway.  There  is  no 
indication  of  the  boats  having  had  masts  and  sails,  which  also 
agrees  with  Tacitus.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  have  here 
the  tjrpical  Scandinavian  form  of  boat,  with  such  fine  lines  and 
such  excellent  workmanship  that  it  can  only  be  due  to  an  an- 
cient culture  the  development  of  which  had  extended  over  many 
centuries. 

From  the  Baltic  this  form  of  boat  may  have  spread  to 
Norway,  where  it  gradually  attained  its  greatest  perfection;  and 
it  is  worth  remarking  that  in  that  very  district  where  the 
Baltic  type  of  boat  derived  from  the  south-east  reached  a 
coast  with  superior  harbors,  richer  fisheries,  and  better  op- 
portunities for  longer  sea  voyages,  namely,  in  Bohuslan  and 
Viken,  we  find  also  the  greater  number  of  rock-carvings 
with  representations  of  ships.  It  is,  moreover,  a  question 
whether  the  very  name  of  "  Vikings  "  is  not  connected  with  this 
district,  and  did  not  originally  mean  men  from  Viken,  Vik- 
vasrings;  as  they  were  specially  prominent,  the  name  finally 
became  a  common  designation  for  all  Scandinavians  as 
244 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

had  formerly  been  the  case  with  the  names  Eruli,  Saxons, 
Danes.^  In  the  course  of  their  vo3'ages  towards  the  south- 
west the  Scandinavians  may  also  have  met  very  early  with  ships 
from  the  Mediterranean,  which,  for  instance,  were  engaged  in 
the  tin  trade  with  the  south  of  England,  or  may  even 
have  reached  the  amber  coast,  and  thus  fresh  influence  from 
the  Mediterranean  may  have  been  added.  When  we  see  how 
in  the  fifth  century  roving  Eruli  reached  as  far  as  Italy  in 
their  ships,  this  will  not  appear  impossible;  and  if  there  is  any 
contrivance  that  we  should  expect  to  show  a  certain  com- 
munity of  character  over  a  wide  area,  it  is  surely  the  ship  or 
boat. 

Tacitus  says  that  the  fleets  of  the  Suiones  consisted  of  row- 
boats  without  sails.  It  is  difficult  to  contest  the  accuracy  of  so 
definite  a  statement,  especially  as  it  is  supported  by  the  Nydam 
find,  and  by  the  circumstance  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  appear  to 
have  crossed  the  sea  to  Britain  in  nothing  but  rowboats;  but 
Tacitus  is  speaking  of  warships  in  particular,  and  it  is  impossible 
that  sails  should  not  have  been  known  and  used  in  Scandinavia, 
and  especially  in  Norway,  at  that  time.  There  are  possibly  in- 
dications of  sails  even  in  the  rock-carvings  (see  the  first  example 
in  illustration,  p.  236),  and  in  the  ornaments  on  the  knives  of 
the  Bronze  Age  (see  illustration,  p.  238).  In  the  case  of  a 
people  whose  lot  it  was  to  live  to  so  great  an  extent  on  and  by 
the  sea,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  any  very  long  time 
should  elapse  before  they  thought  of  making  use  of  the  wind, 
even  if  they  did  not  originally  derive  the  invention  of  sails  from 
the  Mediterranean. 

Just  as  the  Phcenicians  and  the  Greeks  had  swift-sailing 
longships  for  war  and  piracy,  and  other,  broader  sailing- 
ships  for  trade  (see  p.  48),  so  also  did  the  Scandinavians 
gradually  develop  two  kinds  of  craft;  the  swift  longships, 
and  the  broader  and  heavier  trading-vessels,  called  "  bosses " 
and  "  knars." 

1  But  "viking "  is  also  explained  as  derived  from  a  Celtic  word,  and  is  said 
to  mean  warrior   [cf.  A.  Bugge]. 

245 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

But  even  if  Northern  shipbuilding  exhibits  a  connection 
with  that  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  thus  was  no  more  spon- 
taneous in  its  growth  than  any  other  form  of  culture  in  the 
world,  the  type  of  ship  produced  by  the  Scandinavians  was 
nevertheless  undoubtedly  superior  to  all  that  had  preceded 
it,  just  as  they  themselves  were  incontestably  the  most  skillful 
seamen  of  their  time.  The  perfection  and  refinement  of  form, 
with  fine  lines,  which  we  find  in  the  three  preserved  boats 
from  Nydam,  and  in  the  three  ships  of  the  beginning  of  the 
Viking  age,  or  about  the  year  800,  give  evidence  in  each  case 
of  centuries  of  culture  in  this  province;  and  when  we  see 
the   richness  of  workmanship   expended   on  the   Oseberg   ship 

and  all  the  uten- 
sils  that  were 
found  with  it,  we 
understand   that   it 

The  preserved  portion  of  the  Viking  ship  from        ^^^       "°       upstart 
Gokstad,  near  Sandefjord  (ninth  century)  race  that  produced 

all  this  but  a 
people  that  may  well  have  sailed  the  North  Sea  even  a 
thousand  years  earlier,  in  the  time  of  Pytheas. 

The  immigration  to  Norway  of  many  tribes  may  itself 
have  taken  place  by  sea.  Thus  the  Horder  and  Ryger 
are  certainly  the  same  tribes  as  the  Harudes  (the 
Charudes  of  the  Emperor  Augustus  and  of  Ptolemy), 
dwelling  in  Jutland  and  on  the  Rhine  [cf.  Csesar],  and  the 
Rugii  west  of  the  Vistula  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Baltic 
(from  whom  possibly  Riigen  takes  its  name).'  They  came 
by  the  sea  route  to  western  Norway  straight  from  Jutland 
and  North  Germany,  and  there  must  thus  have  been  com- 
munication between  these  countries  at  that  time;  but  how 
early  we  do  not  know;  it  may  have  been  at   the  beginning 


iCf.  P.  A.  Munch,  i.,  1852;  Mullenhoff,  ii.,  1887,  p.  66;  iv.,  1900,  pp.  121, 
467.  493f  etc.;  Much,  1905,  pp.  124,  135;  Magnus  Olsen,  1905,  p.  22;  A.  Bugge, 
1906,  p.  20. 

246 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 


of  our  era,  and  it  may  have  been  earlier.'  But  the  fact  that 
whole  tribes  were  able  to  make  so  long  a  migration  by  sea 
indicates  in  any  case  a  high  development  of  navigation,  and 
again  it  is  on  the  Baltic  that  we  first  find  it. 

The  shipbuilding  and  seamanship  of  the  Norwegians  mark 
a  new  epoch  in  the  history  both  of 
navigation  and  discovery,  and  with 
their  voyages  the  knowledge  of  northern 
lands  and  waters  was  at  once  com- 
pletely changed.     As  previously  pointed  out 


The  Viking  ship  from  Oseberg,  near  Tonsberg  (ninth  century) 

(p.  170),  we  notice  this  change  of  period  already  in  Ottar's 
communications  to  King  Alfred,  but  their  explorations  of 
land  and  sea  begin  more  particularly  with  the  colonization  of 


1  H.  Koht  [1908]  has  suggested  the  possibility  that  the  name  "Haloiger" 
(Haleygir)  from  Halogaland  (northern  Norway)  may  be  the  same  as  the 
Vandal  tribe  "  Lugier,"  which  about  the  year  100  inhabited  the  region  be- 
tween the  upper  courses  of  the  Elbe  and  Oder.  With  the  prefix  "  ha  "  they 
are  distinguished  as  the  high  Lugier.  Moltke  Moe  thinks  that  "  Hallinger " 
or  "  Haddingjar "  may  come  from  another  Vandal  tribe,  the  "  Hasdingi " 
(Gothic  "  Hazdiggos  "),  which  had  its  name  from  the  Gothic  "  *  hazds,"  long 
hair  [cf.  Miillenhoff,  iv.,  igoo,  p.  487;  Much,  1905,  p.  127].  It  may  also  be 
possible  that  the  name  of  Skiringssal  in  Vestfold  was  connected  with  the  Sciri 
in  eastern  Germany  [cf.  Munch,  1852]. 

247 


IN  NORTHERN   MISTS 


Iceland,  which  in  its  turn  became  the  starting-point  for 
expeditions  farther  west. 

We  find  accounts  of  these  voyages  of  discovery  in  the 
old  writings  and  sagas,  a  large  part  of  which  was  put  into 
writing  in  Iceland.  A  somber  undercurrent  runs  through 
these  narratives  of  voyages  in  unknown  seas;  even  though 
they  may  be  partly  legendary,  they  nevertheless  bear  witness 
in  their  terseness  to  the  silent  struggle  of  hardy  men  with 
ice,  storms,  cold,  and  want,  in  the  light  summer  and  long, 
dark  winter  of  the  North. 

They  had  neither  compass,  nor  astronomical  instruments, 
nor  any  of  the  appliances  of  our  time  for  finding  their  position  at 


Ships  from  the  Bayeux  tapestry   (eleventh  century) 

sea ;  they  could  only  sail  by  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  it  seems 
incomprehensible  how  for  days  and  weeks,  when  these  were 
invisible,  they  were  able  to  find  their  course  through  fog  and 
bad  weather;  but  they  found  it,  and  the  open  craft  of  the 
Norwegian  Vikings,  with  their  square  sails,  fared  north  and 
west  over  the  whole  ocean,  from  Novaya  Zemlya  and  Spitz- 
bergen  to  Greenland,  Baffin  Bay,  Newfoundland,  and  North 
America,  and  over  these  lands  and  seas  the  Norsemen  extended 
their  dominion.  It  was  not  till  five  hundred  years  later  that 
the  ships  of  other  nations  were  to  make  their  way  to  the  same 
regions. 

The  lodestone,  or  compass,  did  not  reach  the  Norwegians 
till  the  thirteenth  century.  ^     As  to  what  means  they  had  before 

'  O.  Irgens  [1904]  thinks  the  Norwegians  may  have  had  the  compass  very 
early  (lodestone  on  a  straw  or  a  strip  of  wood  floating  on  water  in  a  bowl), 
248 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

that  time  for  finding  their  course  at  sea,  Norse-Icelandic 
Hterature  contains  extremely  scanty  statements.  We  see 
that  to  them,  as  to  the  Phoenicians  before  them,  the  pole- 
star  was  the  lodestar,  and  that  they  sometimes  used  birds 
— ravens — to  find  out  the  direction  of  land;  but  we  also 
hear  that  when  they  met  with  fog  or  cloudy  weather  they 
drifted  without  knowing  where  they  were,  and  sometimes 
went  in  the  opposite  direction  to  that  they  expected,  as  in 
Thorstein  Ericson's  attempt  to  make  Wineland  from  Greenland, 
where  they  arrived  off  Iceland  instead  of  off  America.  Even 
when,  after  a  long  period  of  dull  weather,  they  saw  the  sun 
again,  it  could  not  help  them  to  determine  their  direction  at 
all  accurately,  un- 
less they  knew  the 
approximate  time 
of  day;  but  their 
sense  of  time  was 
certainly  far 
keener  than  ours, 
which  has  been 
blunted  by  the  use 
of  clocks.     Several 

accounts  show  that  on  land  the  Scandinavians  knew  how  to 
observe  the  sun  accurately,  in  what  quarter  and  at  what 
time  it  set,  how  long  the  day  or  the  night  lasted  at  the  summer 
or  winter  solstice,  etc.  From  this  they  formed  an  idea  of 
their  northern  latitude.  Amongst  other  works  a  treatise  of 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  or  later,  included  in  the 
fourth  part  of  the  collection  "  Rymbegla "  [1780,  pp.  472  f.], 
shows  that  they  may  even  have  understood  how  to  take  primi- 
tive measurements  of  the  sun's  altitude  at  noon  with  a  kind 


Landing  of  William  the  Conqueror's  ships  in 
England.     Bayeux  tapestry   (eleventh  century) 


perhaps  even  in  the  eleventh  century;  indeed,  he  considers  it  not  impossible 
that  the  lodestone  may  have  been  brought  to  the  North  even  much  earlier 
than  this  by  Arab  traders.  But  the  expression  often  used  in  the  sagas  that 
they  drifted  about  the  sea  in  thick  and  hazy  weather  (without  seeing  the 
heavenly  bodies)  and  did  not  know  where  they  were,  seems  to  contradict  this. 

249 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 


of  quadrant.  But  they  can  scarcely  have  been  able  to  take 
observations  of  this  kind  on  board  ship  during  their  long 
voyages  in  early  times,  and  they  still  less  understood  how  to 
compute  the  latitude  from  such  measurements  except,  per- 
haps, at  the  equinoxes  and  solstices.  It  is  true  that  from  the 
narrative,  to  be  mentioned  later,  of  a  voyage  in  the  north 
of  Baffin  Bay,  about  1267,  it  appears  that  at  sea,  also,  they 
attempted  to  get  an  idea  of  the  sun's  altitude  by  observing 
where  the  shadow  of  the  gunwale,  on  the  side  nearest  the  sun, 
fell  on  a  man  l)dng  athwartships  when  the   sun  was  in  the 

south.  With  all  its  im- 
perfection this  shows  that 
at  least  they  observed  the 
sun's  altitude.'  In  order 
to  form  some  idea  of  their 
western  or  eastern  longi- 
tude, they  cannot  have  had 
any  other  means  than 
reckoning;  and  so  long  as 
the  sun  and  stars  were 
visible,  and  they  knew  in 
what  direction  they  were 
sailing,  they  undoubtedly 
had  great  skill  in  reckon- 
ing this.  In  thick  weather 
they  could  still  manage  so  long  as  the  wind  held  un- 
altered; but  they  could  not  know  when  it  changed;  they 
were  then  obliged  to  judge  from  such  signs  as  birds,  of 
what   country   they   were,    and    in   what   direction   they    flew; 

1  O.  Irgens  [1904]  has  suggested  the  possibility  that  they  might  measure 
the  length  of  the  shadow  of  the  gunwale  by  marks  on  the  thwart,  and  deter- 
mine when  the  boat  lay  on  an  even  keel  by  a  bowl  of  water,  and  that  thus  they 
might  obtain  a  not  untrustworthy  measurement  of  the  sun's  altitude,  even  at 
sea.  He  further  supposed  that  the  Norwegians  might  have  become  acquainted 
with  the  hour-glass  from  southern  Europe  or  from  the  plundering  of  monas- 
teries, and  that  thus  they  were  able  to  measure  the  length  of  the  day  ap- 
proximately at  sea.  But  no  statements  are  known  that  could  prove  this. 
250 


Seal  of  the  town  of  Dover,  1284 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

we  hear  occasionally  that  they  had  birds  from  Ireland,  or 
from  Iceland,  and  so  on.  The  difference  in  the  fauna  or 
birds  might  give  them  information.  In  their  sailing  direc- 
tions it  is  also  stated  that  they  observed  the  whale;' 
thus,  in  the  Landnamabok  (Hauksbok),  we  read  that  when 
sailing  from  Norway  to  Greenland  one  should  keep  far  enough 
to  the  south  of  Iceland  to  have  birds  and  whales  from 
thence.  This  is  more  difficult  to  understand,  as  the  whale 
is  not  confined  to  the  land,  and  the  same  whales  are  found 
in  various  parts  of  the  northern  seas.  But  drift-ice  or  ice- 
bergs, if  they  met  them,  might  serve  to  show  their  direction, 
as  might  occasionally  driftwood  or  floating  seaweed.  The 
color  of  the  sea  may  certainly  have  been  of  importance  to 
such  keen  observers,  even  though  we  hear  nothing  of  it;  it 
cannot  have  escaped  them,  for  instance,  that  the  water  of 
the  Gulf  Stream  was  a  purer  blue  than  the  rather  greenish- 
brown  water  of  the  coastal  current  near  Norway  and  in  the 
North  Sea,  or  in  the  East  Iceland  Polar  Current;  the  difference 
between  the  water  of  the  East  Greenland  Polar  Current  and  in/ 
the  Atlantic  is  also  striking.  It  may  likewise  be  supposed  that 
men  who  were  dependent  to  such  a  degree  on  observing  every 
sign  may  have  remarked  the  distribution  in  the  ocean  of  so 
striking  a  creature  as  the  great  red  jelly-fish.  If  so,  it  may  often 
have  given  them  valuable  information  of  their  approximate  posi- 
tion. They  used  the  lead,  as  appears,  amongst  other  authorities, 
from  the  "  Historia  Norvegias,"  where  we  read  that  Ingolf  and 
Hjorleif  found  Iceland  "by  probing  the  waves  with  they 
lead." 

But  that   it  was  not  always  easy  to  find   their  course   is\ 
shown,   amongst   other  instances,  by  the   account  of  Eric  the 
Red's    settlement    in    Greenland,    when    twenty-five    ships    left^ 
Iceland    but    only    fourteen    are    said    to    have    arrived.     Here, 
as  elsewhere,  it  was  the  more  capable  commanders  who  came 
through. 


251 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 


THE  NORWEGIAN  SETTLEMENT  IN  ICELAND 

The  island  of  Iceland  is  mentioned,  as  we  have  seen, 
for  the  first  time  in  literature  by  Dicuil,  in  825,  who  calls 
it  Thyle  and  speaks  of  its  discovery  by  the  Irish.  As  he 
says  nothing  about  "  Nortmannic "  pirates  having  arrived 
there,  whereas  he  mentions  their  having  expelled  the  Irish 
monks  from  the  Faroes,  we  may  conclude  that  the  Norsemen 
had  not  yet  reached  Iceland  at  that  time.  The  first  certain 
mention  of  the  name  Iceland  is  in  the  German  poem 
"  Meregarto "  (see  p.  181),'  and  in  Adam  of  Bremen,  where 
we  find  the  first  description  of  the  island  derived  from  a 
Scandinavian  source  (see  p.  193). 

Narratives  of  its  discovery  by  the  Norsemen  and  of  their 
first  settlement  there  are  to  be  found  in  Norse-Icelandic  litera- 
ture; but  they  were  written  down  250  or  300  years  after  the 
events.     These  narratives  of  the  first  discoverers  mentioned  by 


'Presuming  that   King  Alfred's  "  Iraland  "  is  not  an  error  for  "  Isaland " 
and  does  not  mean  Iceland  (see  p.  179). 
252 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

name  and  their  deeds,  which  were  handed  down  by  tradition 
for  so  long  a  time,  can  therefore  scarcely  be  regarded  as  more 
than  legendary;  nevertheless  they  may  give  us  a  picture  in 
broad  outlines  of  how  voyages  of  discovery  were  accomplished 
in  those  times. 

As  the  Norwegians  visited  the  Scottish  islands  and  Ireland 
many  centuries  before  they  discovered  Iceland,  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  they  had  information  from  the  Irish  of  this  great 
island  to  the  north-west;  if  so,  it  was  natural  that  they  should 
afterwards  search  for  it,  although,  according  to  most  Norse- 
Icelandic  accounts,  it  is  said  to  have  been  found  accidentally  by 
mariners  driven  out  of  their  course. 

According  to  the  sagas  a  Norwegian  Viking,  Grim  Kamban, 
had  established  himself  in  the  Faroes  (about  800  A.D.)  and  had 
expelled  thence  the  Irish  priests;  but  possibly  there  was  a 
Celtic  population,  at  any  rate  in  the  southern  islands  (cf.  p.  164). 
After  that  time  there  was  comparatively  active  communication 
between  the  islands  and  Norway,  and  it  was  on  the  way  to  the 
Faroes  or  to  the  Scottish  islands  that  certain  voyagers  were  said 
to  have  been  driven  northward  by  a  storm  to  the  great  unknown 
island.  The  earliest  and,  without  comparison,  the  most  trust- 
worthy authority.  Are  Frode,'  gives  in  his  Islendingabok  (of 
about  1 1 20-1 1 30)  no  information  of  any  such  discovery,  and 
this  fact  does  not  tend  to  strengthen  one's  belief  in  it.  Are 
tells  us  briefly  and  plainly: 

"  Iceland  was  first  settled  from  Norway  in  the  days  of  Harold  Fairhair,  the 
son  of  Half  dan  the  Black;  it  was  at  that  time — according  to  Teit,  Bishop  Is- 
leif's  son,  my  foster-brother,  the  wisest  man  I  have  known,  and  Thorkel  Gellis- 
son,  my  uncle,  whose  memory  was  long,  and  Thorid,  Snorre  Code's  daughter, 
who  was  both  exceeding  wise  and  truthful — when  Ivar,  Ragnar  Lodbrok's  son, 
caused  St.  Edmund,  the  king  of  the  Angles  [i.e.,  the  English  king],  to  be 
slain.  And  that  was  870  winters  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  as  it  is  written  in  his 
saga.  Ingolf  hight  the  Norse  man  of  whom  it  is  truthfully  related  that  he  first 
fared  thence  [from  Norway]  to  Iceland,  when  Harold  Fairhair  was  sixteen 
winters  old,  and  for  the  second  time  a  few  winters  later;  he  settled  south  in 

'  The  priest  Ari  Thorgilsson,  commonly  called  Ari  hinn  Fr6?i  or  Are 
Frode  (i.e.,  the  learned),  lived  from  1068  to  1148. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Reykjarvik;  the  place  is  called  Ingolfshovde;  Minthakseyre,  where  he  first 
came  to  land,  but  Ingolfsfell,  west  of  Olfossa,  of  which  he  afterwards  possessed 
himself.  At  that  time  Iceland  was  clothed  with  forest  [i.e.,  birch  forest]  from 
the  mountains  to  the  strand.  There  were  Christian  men  here,  whom  the 
Norsemen  called  '  Papar '  .  .  ."  and  who  were  Irish,  as  already  mentioned, 
(pp.  165  f.)  "  And  then  there  was  great  resort  of  men  hither  from  Norway,  un- 
til King  Harold  forbade  it,  since  he  thought  that  the  land  [i.e.,  Norway] 
would  be  deserted,"  etc. 

We   may   certainly   assume   that  this   description   of   Are's 

is  at  least  as  trustworthy  as  the  later  statements  on  the  same 

subject;  but  as  Are  probably  also  wrote  a  larger  Islendingabok, 

which  is  now  lost,  there  is  a  possibility  that  he  there  related 

the    discovery    of    Iceland    in    greater 

detail,     and    that    the     later    authors 

have  drawn  from  it. 

The   next    written    account    of   the 

discovery   of   Iceland   is   found   in   the 

"  Historia  de   Antiquitate  regum  Nor- 

vegiensium  "  '  of  the  Norwegian  monk 
Dragon-ship  with  a  king     _.,.,..  ,  „   .  , 

and    warrior    ffrom    the   Tjodnk    (written   about    1180),   where 

Flateyjarbok,    circa    1390]     We  read: 

"  In  Harold's  ninth  year — some  think  in  his 
tenths-certain  merchants  sailed  to  the  islands  which  we  call  '  Phariae '  ['  Faer- 
eyjar '  =  the  Faroes] ;  there  they  were  attacked  by  tempest  and  wearied  long 
and  sore,  until  at  last  they  were  driven  by  the  sea  to  a  far  distant  land,  which 
some  think  to  have  been  the  island  of  Thule;  but  I  cannot  either  confirm  or 
deny  this,  as  I  do  not  know  the  true  state  of  the  matter.  They  landed  and 
wandered  far  and  wide;  but  although  they  climbed  mountains,  they  nowhere 
found  trace  of  human  habitation.  When  they  returned  to  Norway  they  told 
of  the  country  they  had  found  and  by  their  praises  incited  many  to  seek  it. 
Among  them,  especially,  a  chief  named  Ingolf,  from  the  district  that  is  called 
Hordaland;  he  made  ready  a  ship,  associated  with  himself  his  brother-in-law 
Hjorleif  and  many  others,  and  sought  and  found  the  country  we  speak  of,  cind 
began  to  settle  it  together  with  his  companions,  about  the  tenth  year  of  Har- 
old's reign.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  settlement  of  that  country,  which 
we  now  call  Iceland — unless  we  take  into  account  that  certain  persons,  very 
few  in  number,  from  Ireland  (that  is,  little  Britain)  are  believed  to  have  been 
there  in  older  times,  to  judge  from  certain  books  and  other  articles  that  were 
found  after  them.     Nevertheless,  two  others  preceded  Ingolf  in  this  matter; 

1  G.  Storm,  "  Monumenta  Historica  Norvegiae,"  1880,  pp.  8  f. 
254 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

the  first  was  named  Gardar,  after  whom  the  land  was  at  first  called  Gardars- 
holmr,  the  second  was  named  Floki.  But  what  I  have  related  may  suffice 
concerning  this  matter." 

It  is  probable  that  Tjodrik  Monk  was  acquainted  with 
Are  Frode's  Islendingabok,  or  at  least  had  sources  connected 
with  it.  In  the  "  Historia  Norvegiae "  by  an  unknown  Nor- 
wegian author  [written,  according  to  G.  Storm,  about  1180-1190, 
but  probably  later,  in  the  thirteenth  century]  '  we  read  of  the 
discovery  of  Iceland  [Storm,  1880,  p.  92] : 

"  Next,  to  the  west,  comes  the  great  island  which  by  the  Italians  is  called 
Ultima  Tile;  but  now  it  is  inhabited  by  a  considerable  multitude,  while  for- 
merly it  was  waste  land,  and  unknown  to  men,  until  the  time  of  Harold  Fair- 
hair.  Then  certain  Norsemen,  namely  Ingolf  and  Hjorleif,  fled  thither  from 
their  native  land,  being  guilty  of  homicide,  with  their  wives  and  children,  and 
resorted  to  this  island,  which  was  first  discovered  by  Gardar  and  afterwards 
by  another  (?),  and  found  it  at  last,  by  probing  the  waves  with  the  lead." 

In  Sturla's  Landnamabok,  called  the  Sturlubok,  of  about  1250, 
we  find  almost  the  same  story  of  the  first  discovery  as  in  Tjodrik 
Monk.     It  runs: 

"  Thus  it  is  related  that  men  were  to  go  from  Norway  to  the  Faroes — some 
mention  Naddodd  the  Viking  among  them — but  were  driven  westward  in  the 
ocean  and  there  found  a  great  land.  They  went  up  a  high  mountain  in  the 
East-fjords  and  looked  around  them,  whether  they  could  see  smoke  or  any  sign 
that  the  land  was  inhabited,  and  they  saw  nothing.  They  returned  in  the 
autumn  to  the  Faroes.  And  as  they  sailed  from  the  land  much  snow  fell  upon 
the  mountains,  and  therefore  they  called  the  land  Snowland.  They  praised 
the  land  much.  It  is  now  called  Reydarfjeld  in  the  East-fjords,  where  they 
landed,  so  said  the  priest  Saemund  the  Learned.  There  was  a  man  named 
Gardar  Svavarsson,  of  Swedish  kin,  and  he  went  forth  to  seek  Snowland,  by 
the  advice  of  his  mother,  who  had  second  sight.  He  reached  land  east  of  East 
Horn,  where  there  was  then  a  harbor.  Gardar  sailed  around  the  country  and 
proved  that  it  was  an  island.  He  wintered  in  the  north  at  Husavik  in  Skial- 
fanda  and  there  built  a  house.  In  the  spring,  when  he  was  ready  for  sea,  a 
man  in  a  boat,  whose  name  was  Nattfari,  was  driven  away  from  him,  and  a 
thrall  and  a  bondwoman.  He  afterwards  dwelt  at  the  place  called  Natfaravik. 
Gardar  then  went  to  Norway  and  praised  the  land  much.  He  was  the  father 
of  Uni,  the  father  of  Hroar  Tungugodi.  After  that  the  land  was  called  Gar- 
darsholm,  and  there  was  then  forest  between  the  mountains  and  the  strand." 

'  R.  Meissner  [1902,  pp.  43  f.]  thinks  it  was  written  between  1260  and  1264. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

In  Hauk's  Landnamabok  (of  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century)  Gs^r- 
dar's  voyage  is  mentioned  as  the  first,  and  Naddodd's  as  the  second,  and  it  is 
said  of  Gardar  that  he  was  "son  of  Svavar  the  Swede;  he  owned  lands  in  Sea- 
land,  but  was  born  in  Sweden.  He  went  to  the  Southern  isles  [Hebrides]  to 
fetch  her  father's  inheritance  for  his  wife.  But  as  he  was  sailing  through  Pett- 
lands  firth  [Pentland,  between  Orkney  and  Shetland],  a  storm  drove  him  back, 
and  he  drifted  westward  in  the  ocean,"  etc.  The  Sturlubok  was  doubtless  writ- 
ten some  fifty  years  before  Hauk's  Landnamabok,  and  was  the  authority  for 
the  latter  and  for  the  lost  Landnamabok  of  Styrmir  enn  froSi^  (ob.  1245);  but 
as  the  copy  that  has  come  down  to  us  of  the  Sturlubok  is  later  (about  1400), 
many  have  thought  that  in  this  point  the  Hauksbok  is  more  to  be  relied  upon, 
and  have  therefore  held  that  according  to  the  oldest  Icelandic  tradition  the 
Swedish-born  Dane  Gardar  was  the  first  Scandinavian  discoverer  of  Iceland. 
Support  for  this  view  has  also  been  found  in  the  fact  that,  in  another  passage 
of  the  Sturlubok  we  read:  "  Uni,  son  of  Gardar  who  first  found  Iceland."  It 
has  therefore  been  held  that  it  was  not  till  after  1300  that  a  transposition  was 
made  in  the  order  of  Gardar's  and  Naddodd's  voyages  at  the  beginning  of  the 
book  [cf.  F.  Jonsson,  1900,  p.  xxx].  But  this  assertion  may  be  doubtful;  it 
seems  rather  as  though  the  Icelandic  tradition  itself  was  uncertain  on  this 
point.  We  have  seen  above  that  the  Norwegian  work,  "  Historia  Norvegiae," 
mentions  Gardar  as  the  first;  while  the  yet  earlier  monk  Tjodrik  (1177-1180) 
has  a  tale  of  a  first  accidental  voyage  to  Iceland,  which  is  the  same,  in  parts  word 
for  word,  as  the  stories  of  both  the  Sturlubok  and  the  Hauksbok  of  Naddodd's 
voyage,  only  that  Tjodrik  mentions  no  name  in  connection  with  it.  He  cer- 
tainly says  later  that  Gardar  and  Floki  went  there  before  Ingolf ;  but  this  must 
mean  that  all  three  came  after  the  first-mentioned  nameless  voyage.  If  we 
compare  with  this  the  vague  expression  of  the  Sturlubok  that  "  some  mention 
Naddodd  the  Viking  "  in  connection  with  that  first  accidental  voyage,  the  logi- 
cal conclusion  must  be  that  there  was  an  old  tradition  that  some  one,  whose 
identity  is  uncertain,  had  been  long  ago  driven  by  weather  to  this  Snowland, 
in  the  same  way  as  there  was  a  tradition  in  Iceland  that  Gunnbjorn  had  been 
driven  long  ago  to  Gunnbjornskerries,  before  Greenland  was  discovered  by  Eric 
the  Red.  Some  have  then  connected  this  first  storm-driven  mariner  with  a 
Norwegian  Viking-name,  Naddodd.  Thus  are  legends  formed.  But  the  first  man 
to  circumnavigate  the  country  and  to  become  more  closely  acquainted  with  it 
was,  according  to  the  tradition,  Gardar,  whose  name  was  more  certainly  known; 
for  which  reason  he  was  also  readily  named  as  the  first  discoverer  of  the  country 
(just  as  Eric  the  Red,  and  not  Gunnbjorn,  was  named  as  the  discoverer  of  Green- 
land). Hauk  Erlendsson  then,  in  agreement  with  this,  amended  the  Landnamabok 
by  placing  Gardar's  voyage  first,  while  at  the  same  time  he  made  the  mention 
of  Naddodd  more  precise,  which  was  necessary,  since  his  was  to  be  a  later  and 


1  The  original  Landnamabok,  which  was  the  source  of  both  Styrmir's  and 
Sturle's  versions,  must  have  been  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century. 
256 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

therefore  equally  well-known  voyage.  He  also  gives  Naddodd's  kin,  which  is 
not  alluded  to  in  the  Sturlubok.  This  hypothesis  is  strengthened  by  the  latter's 
vague  expression,  above  referred  to,  about  Naddodd,  and  by  the  fact  that  only 
Gardar's  and  Floki's  names  are  mentioned  by  Tjodrik  Monk,  and  only  Gardar 
and  another  (Floki?)  in  the  "  Historia  Norvegias."  If  Naddodd's  voyage  had 
come  after  Gardar's,  and  consequently  was  equally  well  known,  it  would  be 
strange  that  it  should  not  be  mentioned  together  with  his  and  with  the  third 
voyage  that  succeeded  them.  But  the  whole  question  is  of  little  importance, 
since,  as  we  have  said,  these  narratives  must  be  regarded  as  mere  legends. 

The  third  voyage,  according  to  both  the  Hauksbok  and  Stur- 
lubok, was  made  by  a  great  Viking  named  Floki  Vilgerdarson. 
He  fitted  out  in  Rogaland  to  seek  Gardarsholm  (or  Snowland). 
He  took  with  him  three  ravens  which 

"were  to  show  him  the  way,  since  seafaring  men  had  no  ' leidarstein '  [lode- 
stone,  magnetic  needle]  at  that  time  in  the  north.  .  .  ,  He  came  first  to 
Hjaltland  [Shetland]  and  lay  in  Floka-bay.  There  Geirhild,  his  daughter,  was 
drowned  in  Geirhilds-lake.  Folki  then  sailed  to  the  Faroes,  and  there  gave 
his  [other]  daughter  in  marriage.  From  her  is  come  Trond  in  Gata.  Thence  he 
sailed  out  to  sea  with  the  three  ravens.  .  .  .  And  when  he  let  loose  the  first  it 
flew  back  astern  [i.e.,  towards  the  Faroes].  The  second  flew  up  into  the  air 
and  back  to  the  ship.  The  third  flew  forward  over  the  prow,  where  they  found 
the  land.  They  came  to  it  on  the  east  at  Horn.  They  then  sailed  along  the 
south  of  the  land.  But  when  they  were  sailing  to  the  west  of  Reykjanes  and 
the  fjord  opened  up,  so  that  they  saw  Snaefellsnes,  Faxi  [a  man  on  board]  said, 
'This  must  be  a  great  land  that  we  have  found;  here  are  great  waterfalls.' 
This  is  since  called  Faxa-os.  Floki  and  his  men  sailed  west  over  Breidafjord, 
and  took  land  there  which  is  called  Vatsf jord,  by  Bardastrond.  The  fjord  was 
quite  full  of  fish,  and  on  account  of  the  fishing  they  did  not  get  in  hay,  and  all 
their  cattle  died  during  the  winter.  The  spring  was  a  cold  one.  Then  Floki 
went  rtorthward  on  the  mountain  and  saw  a  fjord  full  of  sea-ice.  Therefore 
they  called  the  country  Iceland.  ...  In  the  summer  they  sailed  to  Norway. 
Floki  spoke  very  unfavorably  of  the  country.  But  Herjolf  said  both  good  and 
evil  of  the  country.  But  Thorolf  said  that  butter  dripped  from  every  blade  of 
grass  in  the  country  they  had  found;  therefore  he  was  called  Thorolf  Smor 
[Butter]." 

These  three  voyages  of  discovery  are  supposed  to  have  taken 
place  about  860-870.  A  few  years  after  that  time  began  the 
permanent  settlement  of  the  country  by  Norwegians;  accord- 
ing to  the  chronicles  this  was  initiated  by  Ingolf  Arnarson  with 
his  establishment  at  Reykjarvik  (about  the  year  874),  which 
is   mentioned    as    early    as    Are    Frode    (see    above,    p.    253), 

257 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

and  this  establishment  may  be  more  historical.  Harold 
Fairhair's  conquest  of  the  whole  of  Norway,  of  which  he  made 
one  kingdom,  and  his  hard-handed  procedure  may  have  been 
partly  responsible  for  the  emigration  of  Norwegians  to  the 
poorer  island  of  Iceland;  many  of  the  chiefs  preferred  to  live  a 
harder  life  there  than  to  remain  at  home  under  Harold's  domin- 
ion. A  larger  part  of  the  settlers,  and  among  them  many  of 
the  best,  had  first  emigrated  from  Norway  to  the  Scottish  isles 
and  to  Ireland,  but  on  account  of  troubles  moved  once  more  to 
Iceland.'  As  has  been  suggested  already  (p.  167),  there 
was  probably,  besides  the  Irish  priests,  some  Celtic  population 
before  the  Norwegians  arrived,  which  gave  Celtic  names  to  va- 
rious places  in  the  country.  The  omission  of  any  mention  of 
these  Celts,  with  the  exception  of  the  "  Papar,"  in  the 
"  Landnama  "  is  no  more  surprising  than  the  strange  silence  about 
the  primitive  people  of  Greenland,  whom  we  now  know  with  cer- 
tainty to  have  been  in  the  country  when  the  Icelanders  came 
thither. 

THE  DISCOVERY  AND  SETTLEMENT  OF  GREENLAND  BY 
THE  NORWEGIANS 

The  earliest  mention  of  Greenland  known  in  literature,  is  that 
found  in  Adam  of  Bremen  (see  above,  p.  194).  It  was  written 
about  a  hundred  years  after  the  probable  settlement  of  the  coun- 
try, and  shows  that  at  least  the  name  had  reached  Denmark  at 
that  time.  In  another  passage  of  his  work  Adam  says  that 
"  emissaries  from  Iceland,  Greenland,  and  the  Orkneys "  came 
to  Archbishop  Adalbert  of  Bremen  "  with  requests  that  he  would 
send  preachers  to  them." 

The  oldest  Icelandic  account  of  the  discovery  of  Greenland, 
and  of  the  people  settling  there,  is  found  in  Are  Frode's 
Islendingabok  (ca.  1130).  He  had  it  from  his  uncle,  Thorkel 
Gellisson,    who    had    been    in    Greenland    and    had    conversed 

iCf.  Vigfusson,  1856,  i.  p.  i86;  P.  A.  Munch,  i860;  J.  E.  Sars,  1877,  i.  p. 
213;  A.  Bugge,  190S,  pp.  377  £.  Finnur  Jonsson,  1894,  ii.  p.  188,  is  against 
this  view. 

258 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

with  a  man  who  himself  had  accompanied  Eric  the  Red  thither. 
Thorkel  lived  in  the  second  half  of  the  eleventh  century,  and 
"  remembered  far  back."  Are's  statements  have  thus  a  good  au- 
thority, and  they  may  be  regarded  as  fairly  trustworthy,  at  all 


Greenland.     The  shaded  parts  along  the  coast  are  not  covered  by  the  inland 
ice,  which  otherwise  covers  the  whole  of  the  interior 

events  in  their  main  outlines;  for  the  events  were  no  more  re- 
mote than  a  couple  of  generations,  and  accounts  of  them  may 
still  have  been  extant  in  Iceland.  Unfortunately,  the  records  that 
have  come  down  to  us,  from  the  hand  of  Are  himself,  are  very 
brief.     He  says: 

259 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

"The  land  which  is  called  Greenland  was  discovered  and  settled  from  Ice- 
land. Eirik  Raude  [Eric  the  Red]  was  the  name  of  a  man  from  Breidafjord, 
who  sailed  thither  from  hence  and  there  took  land  at  the  place  which  is  since 
called  Eiriksf  jord.  He  gave  the  land  a  name  and  called  it  Greenland,  and  said 
that  having  a  good  name  would  entice  men  to  go  thither.  They  found  there 
dwelling-sites  of  men,  both  in  the  east  and  the  west  of  the  country,  and  frag- 
ments of  boats  [keiplabrot]  and  stone  implements,  so  that  one  may  judge 
from  this  that  the  same  sort  of  people  had  been  there  as  inhabited  Wineland, 
whom  the  Greenlanders  ^  call  Skraelings.^  Now  this,  when  he  betook  himself 
to  settling  the  country,  was  fourteen  or  fifteen  winters  before  Christianity 
came  here  to  Iceland,^  according  to  what  Thorkel  Gellisson  was  told  in  Green- 
land by  one  who  himself  accompanied  Eric  the  Red  thither." 

It  is  strange  that  we  only  hear  of  traces  left  by  the  primitive 
people  of  Greenland,  the  Skraelings,  or  Eskimo.  This  looks  as 
though  Eric  the  Red  did  not  come  across  the  people  themselves, 
though  this  seems  improbable.  We  shall  return  to  this  later,  in 
a  special  chapter  on  them. 

It  is  probable  that  in  other  works,  which  are  now  lost,  Are 
Erode  wrote  in  greater  detail  of  the  discovery  of  Greenland  and 
its  first  settlement  by  the  Icelanders,  and  that  later  authors, 
whose  works  are  known  to  us,  have  drawn  upon  him ;  for  where 
they  speak  of  other  events  that  are  mentioned  in  Are's  Islend- 
ingabok,  the  same  expressions  are  often  used,  almost  word 
for  word.  The  oldest  of  the  later  accounts  known  to  us, 
which  give  a  more  complete  narrative  of  the  discovery  of 
Greenland,  were  written  between  1200  and  1305.  The 
Landnamabok  may  be  specially  mentioned;  upon  this  is  based 
the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  (also  called  Thorfinn  Karlsevne's 
Saga),  written,  according  to  the  opinion  of  G.  Storm,  be- 
tween the  years  1270  and  1300,  wTiile  Finnur  Jonsson  (1901) 
assigns  it  to  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century.     By  collating 

1  Thus  the  Norsemen  settled  in  Greenland  are  always  described  in  the  Ice- 
landic sagas,  while  the  Eskimo  are  called  Skrcclings. 

2  Opinions  have  been  divided  as  to  the  origin  of  this  name;  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  word  is  Germanic,  and  is  the  same  as  the  modem  Nor- 
wegian word  "  skrselling,"  which  denotes  a  poor,  weak,  puny  creature. 

3  This  took  place,  according  to  Are  Frode's  own  statements,  in  the  year 
1000. 

260 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

these  various  accounts  we  can  form  a  picture  of  what  took  place ; 
even  though  we  must  suppose  that  traditions  which  have  been 
handed  down  orally  for  so  long  must  in  course  of  time  have  been 
considerably  transformed — especially  where  they  cannot  have 
been  based  on  well-known  geographical  conditions — and  that 
they  have  received  many  a  feature  from  other  traditions,  or  from 
pure  legend. 

Many  accounts,  both  in  Hauk's  Landnamabok  and  in  the 
Sturlubok,  and  in  other  sagas,  mention  that  Greenland  was 
fyrst  discovered  by  the  Norwegian  Gunnbjbm,  son  of  Ulf 
Kraka,  shortly  after  the  settlement  of  Iceland.  On  a 
voyage  to  Iceland,  presumably  about  the  year  900,  he 
was  carried  out  of  his  course  to  the  west,  and  saw  there 
a  great  country,  and  found  certain  islands  or  skerries, 
which  were  afterwards  called  Gunnbjomskerries.  These 
must  have  been  off  Greenland,  most  probably  near  Cape 
Farewell;  but  if  it  was  late  in  the  summer,  in  August  or 
September,  when  there  is  little  ice  along  the  east  coast, 
he  may  even  have  come  close  to  the  land  farther  north, 
and  there  found  islands,  at  Angmagsalik,  for  instance.  It 
is,  however,  of  no  great  importance  where  it  was;  for  when 
he  saw  that  it  was  not  Iceland  that  he  had  made,  but  a  less 
hospitable  country  which  did  not  look  inviting  for  winter 
quarters,  he  probably  sailed  again  at  once,  in  order  to  reach 
his  destination  before  the  ice  and  the  late  season  stopped 
him,  without  spending  time  in  exploring  the  country.  Whether 
Gunnbjom  established  himself  in  Iceland  we  do  not  know; 
but  it  is  recorded  that  his  brother,  Grimkell,  took  land  at 
Snaefellsnes  and  was  among  the  first  settlers,  and  his  sons, 
Gunnstein  and  Halldor,  took  land  in  the  north-west  on 
Isafjord. 

Various  later  writers  have  interpreted  this  to  mean  that 
Gunnbjomskerries  lay  to  the  west  of  Iceland,  and  far  from  the 
great  land  that  Gunnbjom  saw;  but  the  earliest  notices  (in  the 
Hauksbok  and  Sturlubok)  do  not  warrant  such  a  view.  It  has 
even  been  suggested  as  possible  that  Gunnbjomskerries  lay  in 

261 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

the  ocean  between  Iceland  and  Greenland,  but  were  destroyed 
later  by  a  volcanic  outbreak.  In  the  Dutchman  Ruysch's 
map  of  1508,  an  island  is  marked  in  this  ocean,  with  the  note 
that:  "This  island  was  totally  consumed  in  the  year  1456 
A.D."  ^  It  is  inconceivable  that  such  an  island  midway  in  the 
course  between  Iceland  and  Greenland  should  have  entirely  es- 
caped mention  in  the  oldest  accounts  of  the  voyages  of  Eric  the 
Red  and  later  settlers  in  Greenland,  to  say  nothing  of  the  cir- 
cumstance that  it  would  certainly  have  been  mentioned  in  the 
ancient  sailing  directions  (e.g.,  in  the  Hauksbok  and  Sturlubok) 
for  the  voyage  from  Iceland  to  Greenland.  Nor  are  there  any 
known  banks  in  this  part  of  the  ocean  which  might  indicate  that 
such  an  island  had  existed.  It  is  in  itself  not  the  least  unlikely 
that  Gunnbjorn  reached  some  islands  of  the  Greenland  coast, 
and  that  these  in  later  tradition  received  the  name  of  Gunnbjorn- 
skerries. 

That  they  were  gradually  transferred  by  tradition  to  a  place 
where  islands  were  no  longer  to  be  met  with,  or  which  in  any  case 
was  unapproachable  on  account  of  ice,  appears  from  the  descrip- 
tion of  Greenland  ascribed  to  Ivar  Bardsson  (probably  written 
in  the  fifteenth  century),  where  we  read:  ^ 

"  Item  from  Snaefellsnes  in  Iceland,  which  is  shortest  to  Greenland,  two 
days*  and  two  nights'  sail,  due  west  is  the  course,  and  there  lie  Gunnbjornsker- 
ries  right  in  mid-channel  between  Greenland  and  Iceland.  This  was  the  old 
course,  but  now  ice  has  come  from  the  gulf  of  the  sea  to  the  north-east  [land- 
norden  botnen]  so  near  to  the  said  skerries,  that  none  without  danger  to  life 
can  sail  the  old  course,  and  be  heard  of  again." 

Later  in  the  same  statement  we  read : 

"  Item  when  one  sails  from  Iceland,  one  must  take  his  course  from  Snae- 
fellsnes .  .  .  and  then  sail  due  west  one  day  and  one  night,  very  slightly 
to  the  south-west  ^  to  avoid  the  before-mentioned  ice  which  lies  off  Gunnbjorn- 

1  It  seems  possible  that  this  note  may  refer  to  an  island  which  appeared  in 
1422  south-west  of  Reykjames,  and  later  again  disappeared  [cf.  Th.  Thorodd- 
sen,  1897,  i.  pp.  89  f.]. 

=  See  "  Gronlands  historiske  Mindesmaerker,"  iiL  p.  250;  F.  Jonsson,  1899, 

p.  322- 

2  Instead  of  the  words  "very  slightly  .  .  ."  some  MSS.  have:  "but 
then  steer  south-west." 

262 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

skerries,  and  then  one  day  and  one  night  due  north-west,  and  thus  he  will 
come  straight  on  the  said  highland  Hvarf  in  Greenland." 

This  description  need  not  be  taken  to  indicate  that  the 
Gunnbjomskerries  were  supposed  to  lie  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea  between  Iceland  and  Greenland;  some  place  on  the 
east  coast  of  Greenland  (e.g.,  at  Angmagsalik)  may  rather  be 
intended,  which  was  sighted  on  the  voyage  between  Iceland 
and  the  Eastern  Settlement  (taking  "  Greenland "  to  mean 
only  the  settled  districts  of  the  country).  The  direction  "due 
west,  etc.,"  for  the  voyage  to  the  Eastern  Settlement  is  too 
westerly,  unless  it  was  a  course  by  compass,  which,  although 
possible,  is  hardly  probable.  But  as  we  shall  see  later  there  is 
much  that  is  untrustworthy  in  the  description  attributed  to  Ivar 
Bardsson. 

A  later  tradition  of  Gunnbjorn's  voyage  also  deserves 
mention ;  it  is  found  in  the  "  Annals  of  Greenland "  of  the 
already  mentioned  Bjom  Jonsson  of  Skardsa  (1574-1656), 
which  he  compiled  from  older  Icelandic  sources,  with  correc- 
tions and  "  improvements "  of  his  own.  He  says  there 
(Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i.  p.  88)  that  the  reason  why  Eric  the 
Red 

"  sailed  to  Greenland  was  no  other  than  this,  that  it  was  in  the  memory  of  old 
people  that  Gunnbjorn,  Ulf  Kraka's  son,  was  thought  to  have  seen  a  glacier  in 
the  western  ocean  [til  annars  jokulsins  i  vestrhafnu],  but  Snaefells  glacier 
here,  when  he  was  carried  westward  on  the  sea,  after  he  sailed  from  the  Gunn- 
bjorn's islands.  Iceland  was  then  entirely  unsettled,  and  newly  discovered  by 
Gardar,  who  sailed  around  the  country  from  ness  to  ness  [nesjastefnu]  and 
called  it  Gardarsholm.  But  this  Gunnbjorn  who  came  next  after  him,  he  sailed 
round  much  farther  out  [djupara],  but  kept  land  in  sight,  therefore  he  called 
the  island  skerries  in  contradistinction  to  the  holm  [i.e.,  Gardarsholm] ;  but 
many  histories  have  since  called  these  islands  land,  sometimes  large  islands." 

This  last  statement  is  in  any  case  an  explanatory  "  im- 
provement "  by  Bjorn  Jonsson  himself,  and  doubtless  this 
is  also  true  of  the  rest.  According  to  this,  the  Gunnbjomskerries 
lay  even  within  sight  of  Iceland.  In  this  connection  it  is 
worth  remarking  that  his  contemporary,  Arngrim  Jonsson, 
imagines    ["  Specim.    Island.,"    p.    34]    the    Gunnbjomskerries 

263 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

as  a  little  uninhabited  island  north  of  Iceland.  This  would 
agree  best  with  the  little  Mevenklint,  which  lies  by  itself 
in  the  Polar  Sea,  fifty-six  nautical  miles  north  of  land,  and 
perhaps  it  is  not  wholly  impossible  that  it  was  rumors  of  this 
in  later  times  that  give  rise  to  the  ideas  of  the  Gunnbjom- 
skerries,  which,  however,  by  confusion  were  transferred  west- 
ward. 

It  was  long  before  any  attempt  was  made,  according  to  the 
narratives,  to  search  for  the  land  discovered  by  Gunnbjorn.  In 
Hauk's  Landnamabok  (c.  122)  we  read: 

"  Snsebjorn  [Galti,  Holmsteinsson]  owned  a  ship  in  Grimsa-os,  and  Rolf  of 
Raudesand  bought  a  half-share  in  it.i  They  had  twelve  men  each.  With  Snae- 
bjorn  were  Thorkel  and  Sumarlide,  sons  of  Thorgeir  Raud,  son  of  Ejnar  of 
Stafholt.  Snaebjorn  also  took  with  him  Thorodd  of  Thingnes,  his  foster-father, 
and  his  wife,  and  Rolf  took  with  him  Styrbjorn,  who  quoth  thus  after  his  dream: 

'The  bane  I  see 

of  both  of  us, 

all  dolefully 

north-west  in  the  sea, 

frost  and  cold, 

all  kinds  of  anguish; 

from  such  I  foresee 

the  slaying  of  Snaebjorn.' 

"They  went  to  seek  for  Gunnbjornskerries,  and  found  land.  Snaebjorn 
would  not  let  anyone  land  at  night.  Styrbjorn  went  from  the  ship  and  found 
a  purse  of  money  in  a  grave-mound  [kuml,  a  cairn  over  a  grave],  and  hid  it. 
Snaebjorn  struck  at  him  with  an  axe,  and  the  purse  fell.  They  built  a  house, 
and  covered  it  all  over  with  snow  [ok  lagdi  hann  i  fonn].  Thorkel  Raudsson 
found  that  there  was  water  on  the  fork  that  stuck  out  at  the  aperture  of  the 
hut.  That  was  in  the  month  of  Goe.=  Then  they  dug  themselves  out.  Snae- 
bjorn made  ready  the  ship.  Of  his  people,  Thorodd  and  his  wife  stayed  in 
the  house;  and  of  Rolf's,  Styrbjorn  and  others,  and  the  rest  went  hunting. 
Styrbjorn  slew  Thorodd,  and  both  he  and  Rolf  slew  Snaebjorn.  Raud's  sons 
and  all  the  others  took  oaths  [i.e.,  oaths  of  fidelity]  to  save  their  lives.    They 

1  Both  Snaebjorn  and  Rolf  had  to  fly  from  Iceland  for  homicide.  Rolf  and 
Styrbjorn  fell  in  blood-feud  when  they  returned. 

-  Goe  began  about  February  21.  What  is  here  related  would  thus  show 
that  it  was  not  till  after  that  time  that  mild  weather  began,  so  that  the  snow 
melted  and  there  was  water  on  the  stick  that  stuck  out  through  the  aperture. 

264 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

came   to    Halogaland,   and   went   thence   to    Iceland,   and   arrived    at   Vadil." 
There  both  Rolf  and  Styrbjorn  met  their  death. 

It  is  possible  that  this  strange  fragmentary  tale  points  back 

to  an  actual  attempt  at  settlement  in  Greenland,  due  to  Snae- 

bjom  and  Rolf  having  to  leave  Iceland  on  account  of  homicide. 

The  attempt  may  have  been  abandoned  on  account  of  dissen- 


The  Eastern  Settlement  of  Greenland.     The  black  points  mark  ruins  of  the 
homesteads  of  the  ancient  Greenlanders  [from  Finnur  Jonsson,  1899] 

sions,  or  because  the  country  was  too  inhospitable.  From 
the  genealogical  information,  the  voyage  may  possibly  be 
placed  a  little  earlier  than  Eric  the  Red's  first  voyage  to 
Greenland  [cf.  K.  Maurer,  1874,  p.  204].  Whereabouts  in 
Greenland  they  landed  and  spent  the  vi^inter  is  not  stated; 
but  the  fact  that  the  snow  first  began  to  thaw  in  the  month 
of  Goe  would  point  to  a  cold  climate,  and  this  agrees 
best  with  the  east  coast  of  Greenland.  But  the  story  is  so 
obscure  that  it  is  difficult  to  form  any  clear  opinion  as  to  its 

265 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 


general  credibility;  the  grave-mound  and  the  purse  of  money 
must  in  any  case  have  come  from  elsewhere.     The  circumstance 

that    on    their    return 

-^54  they  sailed  first  to 
Norway  and  thence  to 
Iceland  may  be  de- 
rived from  a  later 
time,  when  there  was 
no  direct  communica- 
tion between  Green- 
land and  Iceland,  but 
the  communication 
with  Greenland  took 
place  by  way  of  Nor- 
way. 

The  greatest  and 
most  important  name 
connected  with  the 
discovery  of  Green- 
land is  without  com- 
parison that  of  Eirik 
Raude  (Erik  the  Red). 
The  description  of  this 
remarkable  man  (in 
the  "  Landnama  "  and 
in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the 
Red)  forms  a  good 
picture ;  warlike  and 
hard  as  the  fiercest 
Viking,  but  at  the 
same  time  with  the 
superior  ability  of  the 
born  explorer  and 
leader  to  plan  great  enterprises,  and  to  carry  them  out  in  spite 
of  all  difficulties.  He  was  a  leader  of  men.  He  was  born  in 
Norway  (circa  950)  ;  but  on  account  of  homicide  he  and  his  father 
266 


The  Western  Settlement  of  Greenland.     The 

black  points  mark  ruins   of  the  homesteads 

of     the     ancient     Greenlanders     [from     F. 

Jonsson,   1899] 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

Thorvald  left  Jaederen  and  went  to  Iceland  about  970.  They 
took  land  on  the  Horn-strands,  east  of  Horn  (Cape  North). 
There  Thorvald  died.  Eric  then  married  Tjodhild,  whose 
mother,  Thorbjorg  Knarrar-bringa  (i.e.,  ship's  breast),  lived  in 
Haukadal.  Eric  therefore  moved  south  and  cleared  land  in 
Haukadal  (inland  of  Hvamsfjord,  north  of  Snaefellsnes)  and  lived 
at  Eirikstad  by  Vatshom.  Eric  quarreled  with  his  neighbors 
and  killed  several  of  them.  He  was  therefore  condemned  to 
leave  Haukadal.  He  took  land  on  Broko  and  Oksno,  islands 
outside  Hvamsfjord;  but  after  fresh  conflicts  and  slaughter  he 
and  his  men  were  declared  outlaws  for  three  years,  at  the 
Thorsnes-thing,  about  980.  Eric  then  fitted  out  his  ship,  and  a 
friend  concealed  him,  while  his  enemies  went  all  round  the  islands 
looking  for  him. 

"  He  told  them  [i.e.,  his  friends]  that  he  meant  to  seek  the  land  that  Gunn- 
bjorn,  Ulf  Kraka's  son,  saw  when  he  was  driven  west  of  Iceland  and  found 
Gunnbjornskerries.  He  said  he  would  come  back  for  his  friends,  if  he  found 
the  land.  Eric  put  to  sea  from  Snasfells  glacier;  i  he  arrived  off  Mid  glacier, 
at  the  place  called  Blaserk.  [Thence  he  went  south,  to  see  whether  the  land 
was  habitable.]  He  sailed  westward  round  Hvarf  [west  of  Cape  Farewell]  and 
spent  the  first  winter  in  Eiriksey  near  [the  middle  of]  the  Eastern  Settlement. 
Next  spring  he  went  to  Eiriksfjord  [the  modern  Tunugdliarfik,  due  north  of 
Julianehaab;  see  map  p.  265]  and  gave  names  to  many  places.  The  second 
winter  he  was  at  Eiriksholms  by  Hvarfsgnipa  [Hvarf  Point] ;  but  the  third 
summer  he  went  right  north  to  Snasfell "  and  into  Ravnsf  jord.^  Then  he 
thought  he  had  come  farther  into  the  land  than  the  head  of  Eiriksfjord.  He 
then  turned  back,  and  was  the  third  winter  in  Eiriksey,  off  the  mouth  of  Eiriks- 
fjord. The  following  sximmer  he  went  to  Iceland,  to  Breidafjord.  He  passed 
that  winter  at  Holmlat  with  Ingolf.  In  the  spring  they  fought  with  Thorgest 
[Eric's  former  enemy],  and  Eric  was  beaten.     After  that  they  were  reconciled. 


^  It  was,  perhaps,  not  altogether  by  chance  that  Eric  was  supposed  to  have 
sailed  west  from  this  point,  as  Gunnbjorn's  brother,  Grimkell,  lived  on  the 
outer  side  of  Snasfellsnes;  and  it  may  have  been  on  a  voyage  thither  that 
Gunnbjorn  was  thought  to  have  been  driven  westward  [cf.  Reeves,  1895,  p.  166]. 

-  Snasfell  lay  far  north  on  the  west  coast  of  Greenland.  At  Snasfell  far 
north  is  also  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  Nordrsetu  voyages  (see  later) ; 
it  lay  north  of  Kroksfjardarheidr;  but  whether  it  is  the  same  as  that  here 
mentioned  is  uncertain. 

2  In  the  Eastern  Settlement  there  was  a  Ravnsfjord  (Hrafnsf jorCr),  which 
is  probably  the  same  as  that  intended  here,  as  it  is  compared  with  Eiriksfjord. 

267 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

That  summer  Eric  went  to  settle  the  land  that  he  had  found,  and  he  called  it 
Greenland;  because,  said  he,  men  would  be  more  willing  to  go  thither  if  it  had 
a  good  name. 

"  [Eric  settled  at  Brattalid  in  Eiriksfjord.]  Then  Are  Thorgilsson  says 
that  that  summer  twenty-five  ships  sailed  to  Greenland  from  Borgarfjord  and 
Breidafjord;  but  only  fourteen  came  there — some  were  driven  back,  others 
were  lost.  This  was  sixteen  winters  before  Christianity  was  made  law  in 
Iceland."  i    This  would  therefore  be  about  984. 


View  from  the  mountain  Igdlerfigsalik  (see  map,  p.  271)   over  Tunug 
Midfjords)   into  which  a  glacier  falls;   in   the   right-center   Korokfjort 

ice;  behind  it  on  the  right  the  Ni 


Eric  the  Red's  first  voyage  to  Greenland  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  the  history  of  arctic  expeditions,  both  in  itself, 
on  account  of  the  masterly  ability  it  shows,  and  for  the  vast  con- 
sequences it  was  to  have.  With  the  scanty  means  of  equipment 
and  provisioning  available  at  that  time  in  the  open  Viking 
ships,2  it  was  no  child's  play  to  set  out  for  an  unknown  arctic  land 

1  The  above  is  for  the  most  part  a  translation  from  Hauk's  Landnamabok. 

2  We  know  little  of  how  the  ancient  Scandinavians  were  able  to  provide 
themselves  on  their  long  voyages  with  food  that  would  keep;  they  used  salt 
meat,  and  it  is  probable  that  when  they  were  laid  up  for  the  winter  they  often 
died  of  scurvy,  as  indeed  is  indicated  by  the  narratives.  Meat  and  fish  they 
could  doubtless  often  obtain  fresh  by  hunting  and  fishing;  for  grain  products 
they  were  in  a  worse  position;  these  can  never  have  been  abundant  in  Iceland. 
268 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 
beyond  the  ice,  and  to  stay  there  three  years.  Perhaps,  of 
course,  he  did  it  from  necessity;  but  he  not  only  came  through 
it  aHve— he  employed  the  three  years  in  exploring  the  country, 
from  Hvarf  right  up  to  north  of  Davis  Strait,  and  from  the 
outermost  belt  of  skerries  to  the  head  of  the  long  fjords.  This 
was  more  than  500  years  before  the  Portuguese  came  to  the 


fjord  and  Brattalid),  farther  to  the  left  Sermilik  (Isafjord  and  the 
er  falling  into  it  The  whole  background  is  covered  by  the  inland 
e  east  coast,    [after  D.  Bruun,  1896.] 


country,  and  exactly  600  before  John  Davis  thought  himself  the 
discoverer  of  this  coast. 

and  they  certainly  had  no  opportunity  of  carrying  a  large  provision  with  them; 
but  as  a  rule  they  can  scarcely  have  got  on  altogether  without  hydrocarbons, 
which  are  considered  necessary  for  the  healthy  nourishment  of  a  European. 
Milk  may  have  afforded  a  sufficient  compensation,  and,  in  fact,  we  see  that  they 
usually  took  cattle  with  them.  In  the  narrative  of  Ravna-Floki's  voyage  to 
Iceland  it  is  expressly  said  that  the  cattle  died  during  the  winter  (see  above,  p. 
257),  and  it  must  have  been  for  this  reason  that  they  thought  they  must  go 
home  again  the  next  summer,  which  shows  how  important  it  was.  Probably 
Eric  also  took  cattle  with  him  on  his  first  voyage  to  Greenland,  and  thus  he 
was  obliged  before  all  to  find  a  more  permanent  place  of  abode  on  the  shores 
of  the  fjords  where  there  was  grazing  for  the  cattle;  but  it  is  likely  that  he 
lived  principally  by  sealing  and  fishing.  In  that  case  he  must  have  been  a  very 
capable  fisherman. 

269 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 


But  not  only  does  Eric  seem  to  have  been  pre-eminent, 
first  as  a  fighter  and  then  as  a  discoverer;  as  the  leader  of  the 
colony  founded  by  him  in  Greenland  he  must  also  have  had 
great  capabilities;  he  got  people  to  emigrate  thither,  and 
looked  after  them  well;  and  he  was  regarded,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  as  the  leading  man  and  chief  of  the  new  free  state, 
whom  everyone  visited  first  on  arrival.  His  successors,  who 
resided  at  the  chief's  seat  of  Brattalid,  were  the  first  family  of  the 
country. 

Immigration    to    Greenland    must,   according    to    the    saga, 

have  gone  on  rapidly; 
for  in  the  year  looo 
there  were  already  so 
many  inhabitants  that 
Olaf  Tryggvason 
2^^^^^^^^  thought  it  worth 
'^$r'$^-^.^'  while  to  make  efforts 
to  christianize  them, 
and  sent  a  priest 
there  with  Eric's  son 
Leif.  Eric's  wife, 
Tjodhild,  at  once  re- 
ceived the  faith;  but 
the  old  man  himself 
did  not  like  the  new  doctrine,  and  found  it  difficult  to  give  up 
his  own.  Tjodhild  built  a  church  at  some  distance  from  the 
houses,  "there  she  made  her  prayers,  and  those  men  who 
accepted  Christianity,  but  they  were  the  most.  She  would 
not  live  with  Eric  after  she  had  taken  the  faith ;  but  to  him  this 
was  very  displeasing."  In  Snorre's  "  Heimskringla "  we  read 
that  men  called  Leif  "  the  Lucky  [see  Chap,  ix.] ;  but  Eric, 
his  father,  thought  that  one  thing  balanced  the  other,  that 
Leif  had  saved  the  shipwrecked  crew  and  that  he  had  brought 
the  hypocrite  [skasmannin]  to  Greenland,  that  is,  the 
priest." 

The  Norsemen  established  themselves  in  two  districts  of 
270 


Part  of  the  interior  of  Eiriksf  jord,  at  Bratta- 
lid and  beyond.  The  mountain  Igdlerfigsalik 
in   the   background    [after  D.   Bruun,    1896] 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 


Greenland.  One  of  these  was  the  Eastern  Settlement  (Oster- 
bygden),  so  called  because  it  lay  farthest  to  the  south-east 
on  the  west  coast,  between  the  southern  point,  Hvarf,  and 
about  6i°  N.  lat.  It  corresponds  to  the  modem  Julianehaab 
District.  It  was  the  most  thickly  populated,  and  it  was  here 
that  Eiriks- 
fjord  and 
Brattalid  lay. 
In    the    whole 

Settlement 
there  are  said 
to  have  been 
t  9  o  h  o  m  e- 
steads  [Gronl. 
hist.     Mind., 

iii.      p.      228]. 

Ruins  of  these 

have  been 
found     in     at 

least     150 

places    [cf.   D. 

Brunn,     1896; 

G.       Holm, 

1883]. 

The    other 

district,      the      Western      Settlement       (Vesterbygden),      lay 

farther  north-west  between  63°   and  66^/2°    (see  map,  p.   266), 

for  the  most  part  in  the  modern   Godthaab    District,   and   its 

population   was   densest   in   Ameralikfjord   and   Godthaabsfjord. 

There    are    said    to    have    been    ninety    homesteads    in    this 

settlement.     Many  ruins  of  Norsemen's   stone  houses  are   still 

found  in  both  districts,  and  they  show  with  certainty  where  the 

settlements  were  and  what  was  their  extent. 

On  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  which  is  closed  by  drift-ice 

for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  the  Norsemen  had  no  permanent 

settlement,  and  it  was  only  exceptionally  that  they  were  able 

271 


The  central  part  of  the  Eastern  Settlement.     Black 
points  mark  ancient  ruins,  crosses  mark  churches 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

to  land  there,  or  they  were  sometimes  wrecked  in  the  drift-ice 
off  the  coast  and  had  to  take  refuge  ashore.  Several  places  are, 
however,  mentioned  along  the  southern  part  of  the  east  coast, 
where  people  from  the  Eastern  Settlement  probably  went 
hunting  in  the  summer. 


The  plain  by  Igaliko   (Gardar)  with  ruins.     In  the  background  the  peaks  of 
Igdlerfigsalik,  and  in  front  of  them  Iganek  [after  N.  P.  Jorgensen] 

The  population  of  the  two  settlements  in  Greenland  can 
scarcely  have  been  large  at  any  time;  perhaps  at  its  highest 
a  couple  of  thousand  altogether.  If  we  take  it  that  there 
were  280  homesteads,  and  on  an  average  seven  persons  in 
each,  which  is  a  high  estimate,  then  the  total  will  not  be 
more  than  i960.  But  the  long  distances  caused  the  building, 
after  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  of  a  comparatively 
large  number  of  churches,  namely  twelve  in  the  Eastern  Settle- 
ment (where  the  ruins  of  only  five  have  been  found),  and 
four  in  the  Western  Settlement,  besides  which  a  monastery  and 
a  nunnery  are  mentioned  in  the  Eastern  Settlement.  About 
mo,  Greenland  became  an  independent  bishopric,  although 
it  is  said  in  the  "  King's  Mirror  "  that 
272 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

"  if  it  lay  nearer  to  other  lands  it  would  be  reckoned  for  a  third  part  of  a  bish- 
opric. But  now  the  people  there  have  nevertheless  a  bishop  of  their  own;  for 
there  is  no  other  way,  since  the  distance  between  them  and  other  people  is  so 
great." 

The  chief's  house,  Gardar,  in  Einarsfjord  (Igaliko)  became 
the  episcopal  residence.  There  is  a  fairly  complete  record  of 
the  bishops  of  Greenland  down  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  During  the  succeeding  century,  and  even  until  1530, 
a  number  of  bishops  of  Greenland  are  also  mentioned,  who  were 
appointed,  but  never  went  to  Greenland. 

Even  if  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  Greenland  settlements 
were  not  luxurious,  they  were  nevertheless  not  so  hard  as  to 
prevent  the  development  of  an  independent  art  of  poetry.  Sophus 
Bugge  points  out  in  "  Norrcen  Fornkvasdi  "  [Christiania,  1867, 
p.  433]  that  the  "  Atlamal  en  groenlenzku  "  of  the  Edda  is,  as 
its  title  shows,  from  Greenland,  and  was  most  probably  composed 
there.  Finnur  Jonsson  [1894,  i-  PP-  66,  68  f. ;  1897,  PP-  4°  f-] 
would  even  refer  four  or  five  other  Edda-lays  to  Greenland, 
namely:  "  Oddriinargratr,"  "  GoSrunarhvot,"  "  Sigur?5arkvi3a 
en  skamma,"  "  HelgakviSa  Hundingsbana,"  perhaps  also  "  Hel- 
reiS  Brynhildar."  As  regards  the  two  last-named,  the  assump- 
tion is  certainly  too  doubtful,  but  in  the  case  of  the  other 
three  it  is  possible.  The  "  NortSrsetudrapa,"  to  be  mentioned 
later  (p.  298),  was  composed  in  Greenland;  and  the  so- 
called  "  Hafger?5inga-drapa "  may  be  derived  thence ;  in  the 
Landnamabok,  where  one  or  two  fragments  of  it  are  re- 
produced, it  is  said  to  have  been  composed  by  a  "  Chris- 
tian man  [monk?]  from  the  Southern  isles"  (Hebrides),  on 
the  way  thither.  The  fragments  of  lays  on  FurcSustrandir  and 
Wineland,  which  are  given  in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  may 
possibly  also  be  from  Greenland.  The  fact  that  the  "  Snorra- 
Edda "  gives  a  particular  kind  of  meter,  called  "  Gronlenzkr 
hattr,"  1  agrees  with  the  view  that  Greenland  had  an  independent 
art  of  poetry  . 

The  Greenland  lays  like  the  "  Atlamal  "  are  perhaps  not  equal 
to  the  best  Norse  skald-poetry;  but  there  runs  through  them  a 
1  Edda  Snorra  Sturlusonar,  i.  pp.  686,  688,  Hafniae,  1848. 

273 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

weird,  gloomy  note  that  bears  witness  of  the  wild  nature  and  the 
surroundings  in  which  they  were  composed. 

Within  the  fjords  of  both  the  ancient  Greenland  settle- 
ments many  ruins  of  former  habitations  have  been  found 
(see  maps,  pp.  265,  266,  271);  most  of  these  are  found  in 
the  Eastern  Settlement  or  Julianehaab  District  [cf.  especially 
D.  Bruun,  1896;  also  G.  Holm,  1883].     In  a  single  homestead 


View  from  the  mountain  Iganek,  looking  south  over  Igalikofjord  (Eina 

(Gardar  between  thei 

as  many  as  a  score  of  scattered  houses  have  been  found; 
among  them  was  a  dwelling-house,  and  around  it  byres  and 
stables,  for  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and  goats,  with  adjoining 
hay-bams,  or  else  open  hay-fences  (round  stone  walls  within 
which  the  hay  was  stacked  and  covered  with  turf),  besides 
larders,  drying-houses,  pens  for  sheep,  fenced  fields,  etc. 
There  were  also  fenced  outlying  hayfields  with  barns  and 
with  summer  byres  for  sheep  and  goats,  for  they  had  even 
mountain  pastures  and  hayfields.  Near  the  shore  are  found 
sheds,  possibly  for  gear,  for  boats,  sealing,  and  fishing,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  are  no  actual  boathouses.  Ruins  of 
several  churches  (five  in  the  Eastern  Settlement)  have  also 
been  found.  The  dwelling-houses  were  built  of  stone  and 
274 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

turf,  like  the  Icelandic  farmhouses;  in  exceptional  cases  clay 
was  also  used,  while  the  outhouses  were  mostly  built  with 
dry  stone  walls.  For  the  timber  work  of  the  roofs,  drift-wood 
must  have  been  usually  employed.  The  winter  byres  were, 
of  course,  made  weather-proof.  The  size  of  the  bs^res  shows 
that  the  number  of  their  stock  were  not  inconsiderable, 
mostly  sheep  and  goats;  only  where  the  level  lands  near  the 


on   the   right   Tunugdliarfik    (Eiriksfjord)    with    the   isthmus   at   Igaliko 
P.  Jorgensen,  see  D.  Bruun,  1896] 

fjords  offered  specially  good  pasture  was  there  any  great 
number  of  horned  cattle.  Everywhere  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  ruins  stone  traps  are  found,  which  show  that  the  Green- 
landers  occupied  themselves  in  trapping  foxes ;  a  few  large  traps 
have  been  thought  to  have  been  intended  for  wolves  (?),  which 
are  now  no  longer  to  be  found  in  southern  Greenland.  Near 
the  main  buildings  are  found  great  refuse  heaps  ("  kitchen 
middens"),  which  give  us  much  information  as  to  the  life  they 
led  and  what  they  lived  on.  Great  quantities  of  bones  taken 
from  five  different  sites  in  the  Eastern  Settlement  (among  them 
the  probable  sites  of  Brattalid  and  Gardar)  have  been  examined 
by  the  Danish  zoologist,  Herluf  Winge  [cf.  D.  Bruun,  1896, 
pp.    434   f.].     The    great   predominance    of   bones    of   domestic 

275 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

animals,  especially  oxen  and  goats,  and  of  seals,  especially 
the  Greenland  seal,  or  saddle-back  (Phoca  groenlandica) ,  and 
the  bladder-nose,  or  crested,  seal  (Cystophora  cristata),  show 
that  cattle  rearing  and  seal  hunting  were  the  Greenlanders' 
chief  means  of  subsistence;  and  the  latter  especially  must 
have  provided  the  greater  part  of  their  flesh  food,  since,  as  a 
rule,   the   bones   of   seals   are   the   most   numerous.     Curiously 


Remains  of  a  sheep-pen  at  Kakortok.     On  the 
right   the  ruined  church    [after  Th.   Groth] 


enough,  few  fish 
bones  have  been 
found.  As  we  know 
with  certainty  that 
the  Greenlanders 
were  much  occupied 
in  fishing,  this  ab- 
sence now  is  account- 
ed for  by  fish  bones 
and  other  offal  of  fish 
being  used  for  fodder 
for  cattle  in  winter. 
Various  reindeer 
bones  show  that  this 


animal  was  also  found  in  ancient  times  in  the  Eastern  Set- 
tlement, where  it  is  now  extinct.  Besides  these,  bones  of  a  sin- 
gle polar  bear  and  of  a  few  walrus  have  been  found,  which  show 
that  these  animals  were  caught,  though  in  small  numbers;  a 
few  bones  of  whale  have  also  been  found.  There  are,  strangely 
enough,  comparatively  few  bones  of  birds.  The  bones  of  horses 
that  have  been  found  belong  to  a  small  race,  and  the  cattle  were 
of  small  size  and  horned. 

In  the  otherwise  very  legendary  tale,  in  the  Saga  of  the  Fos- 
ter Brothers  (beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century),  of  Thormod 
Kolbrunarskald's  voyage  to  Greenland  and  sojourn  there,  to 
avenge  the  death  of  his  friend  Thorgeir,  we  get  here  and  there 
sidelights  on  the  daily  life  of  the  country,  which  agree  well 
with  the  information  afforded  by  the  remains.  We  hear 
that  they  often  went  to  sea  after  seals,  that  they  had 
276 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  NORSEMEN 

harpoons  for  seals  ("  selskutill "),  that  they  cooked  the 
flesh  of  seals,  etc.  From  the  "  King's  Mirror"  (circa  1250)  we 
get  a  good  glimpse  of  the  conditions  of  life  in  Greenland  in 
those  days : 

"  But  in  Greenland,  as  you  probably  know,  everything  that  comes  from 
other  lands  is  dear  there;  for  the  country  lies  so  distant  from  other  lands  that 
men  seldom  visit  it.  And  everything  they  require  to  assist  the  country,  they 
must  buy  from  elsewhere,  both  iron  (and  tar)  and  likewise  everything  for 
building  houses.  But  these  things  are  brought  thence  in  exchange  for  goods: 
buckskin  and  ox-hides,  and  sealskin  and  walrus-rope  and  walrus  ivory. 
But  since  you  asked  whether  there  was  any  raising  of  crops  or  not,  I  be- 
lieve that  country  is  little  assisted  thereby.  Nevertheless  there  are  men — 
and  they  are  those  who  are  known  as  the  noblest  and  richest — who  make 
essay  to  sow;  but  nevertheless  the  great  multitude  in  that  country  does  not 
know  what  bread  is,  and  never  even  saw  bread.     .    .     . 

"  Few  are  the  people  in  that  land,  for  little  of  it  is  thawed  so  much  as  to 
be  habitable.  .  .  .  But  when  you  ask  what  they  live  on  in  that  country, 
since  they  have  no  corn,  then  (you  must  know)  that  men  live  on  more  things 
than  bread  alone.  Thus  it  is  said  that  there  is  good  pasture  and  great  and 
good  homesteads  in  Greenland;  for  people  there  have  much  cattle  and  sheep, 
and  there  is  much  making  of  butter  and  cheese.  The  people  live  much  on 
this,  and  also  on  flesh  and  all  kinds  of  game,  the  flesh  of  reindeer,  whale,  seal 
and  bear;  on  this  they  maintain  themselves  in  that  country." 

We  see  clearly  enough  from  this  how  the  Greenlanders  of 
the  old  settlements  on  the  one  hand  were  dependent  on  im- 
ports from  Europe,  and  on  the  other  subsisted  largely  by  hunt- 
ing and  fishing.  It  appears,  also,  from  a  papal  bull  of  1282  that 
the  Greenland  tithes  were  paid  in  ox-hides,  sealskins,  and  wal- 
rus ivory. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  Greenland  at  that  time  possessed 
a  more  favorable  climate,  with  less  ice  both  on  land  and 
sea  than  at  present;  but,  amongst  other  things,  the  excellent 
description  in  the  "  King's  Mirror,"  to  be  mentioned  directly, 
shows  clearly  enough  that  such  was  not  the  case.  Many  will 
therefore  ask  what  it  was  that  could  attract  the  Icelanders 
thither.  But  to  one  who  knows  both  countries  it  will  not  be 
so  surprising;  in  many  ways  South  Greenland  appeals  more  to 
a  Norwegian  than  Iceland.  It  lies  in  about  the  same  latitude 
as  Bergen  and  Christiania,  and  the  beautiful  fjords  with  a  num- 

277 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

ber  of  islands  eutside,  where  there  are  good  channels  for  sail- 
ing and  harbors  everywhere,  make  it  altogether  like  the  coast 
of  Norway,  and  different  from  the  more  exposed  coasts  of  Ice- 
land. Inside  the  fjords  the  summer  is  quite  as  warm  and  invit- 
ing as  in  Iceland ;  it  is  true  that  there  is  drift-ice  outside  in  early 
summer,  but  that  brings  good  seal  hunting.  There  was,  besides 
this,  walrus  hunting  aind  whaling,  reindeer  hunting,  fishing  in 
the  sea  and  in  the  rivers,  fowling,  etc.  When  we  add  good  pas- 
turage on  the  shores  of  the  fjords,  it  will  be  understood  that  it 
was  comparatively  easy  to  support  life. 

The  grass  still  grows  luxuriantly  around  the  ruins  on  the 
Greenland  fjords,  and  might,  even  to-day,  support  the  herds  of 
many  a  homestead. 


278 


CHAPTER   VIII 

VOYAGES  TO  THE  UNINHABITED  PARTS  OF 
GREENLAND  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

THE  EAST  COAST  OF  GREENLAND 

THE  sagas  give  us  scanty  information  about  the  east 
coast  of  Greenland — commonly  called,  in  Iceland,  the 
uninhabited  regions  ("  ubygder ")  of  Greenland.  The  drift- 
ice  renders  this  coast  inaccessible  by  sea  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  year,  and  it  was  only  very  rarely  that  anyone  landed 
there,  and  then,  in  most  cases,  through  an  accident.  As  a 
rule  sailors  tried  as  far  as  possible  to  keep  clear  of  the 
East  Greenland  ice,  and  did  not  come  inshore  until  they 
were  well  past  Hvarf,  as  appears  from  the  ancient  sailing 
directions  for  this  voyage.  The  "King's  Mirror"  (circa  1250) 
also  shows  us  clearly  enough  that  the  old  Norsemen  had  a  shrewd 
understanding  of  the  ice  conditions  off  these  uninhabited  regions. 
It  says: 

"  Now  in  that  same  sea  [i.e.,  the  Greenland  sea]  there  are  yet  many  more 
marvels,  even  though  they  cannot  be  accounted  for  witchcraft  [skrimslum]. 
So  soon  as  the  greater  part  of  the  sea  has  been  traversed,  there  is  found  such 
a  mass  of  ice  as  I  know  not  the  like  of  ansrwhere  else  in  the  world.  This  ice 
[i.e.,  the  ice-floes]  is  some  of  it  as  flat  as  if  it  had  frozen  on  the  sea  itself,  four 
or  five  cubits  thick,  and  lies  so  far  from  land  [i.e.,  from  the  east  coast  of 

279 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

Greenland]  that  men  may  have  four  or  five  days'  journey  across  the  ice  [to 
land].  But  this  ice  lies  off  the  land  rather  to  the  north-east  [landnorr]  or 
north  than  to  the  south,  south-west,  or  west;  and  therefore  anyone  wishing 
to  make  the  land  should  sail  round  it  [i.e.,  round  Cape  Farewell]  in  a  south- 
westerly and  westerly  direction,  until  he  is  past  the  danger  of  [encountering] 
all  this  ice,  and  then  sail  thence  to  land.  But  it  has  constantly  happened  that 
men  have  tried  to  make  the  land  too  soon,  and  so  have  been  involved  in  these 
ice-floes;  and  some  have  perished  in  them;  but  others  again  have  got  out,  and 
we  have  seen  some  of  these  and  heard  their  tales  and  reports.  But  one  course 
was  adopted  by  all  who  have  found  themselves  involved  in  this  ice-drift  (isa- 
vok  or  isavalkit),  that  is,  they  have  taken  their  small  boats  and  drawn 
them  up  on  to  the  ice  with  them,  and  have  thus  made  for  land,  but  their  ship 
and  all  their  other  goods  have  been  left  behind  and  lost;  and  some  of  them 
have  passed  four  or  five  days  on  the  ice  before  they  reached  land,  and  some 
even  longer.  These  ice-floes  are  strange  in  their  nature;  sometimes  they  lie 
as  still  as  might  be  expected,  separated  by  creeks  or  large  fjords;  but  some- 
times they  move  with  as  great  rapidity  as  a  ship  with  a  fair  wind,  and  when 
once  they  are  under  way  they  travel  against  the  wind  as  often  as  with  it. 
There  are,  indeed,  some  masses  of  ice  in  that  sea  of  another  shape,  which  the 
Greenlanders  call  '  falljokla.'  Their  appearance  is  that  of  a  high  mountain 
rising  out  of  the  sea,  and  they  do  not  unite  themselves  to  other  masses  of 
ice,  but  keep  apart." 

This  striking  description  of  the  ice  in  the  polar  current  shows 
that  sailors  were  sometimes  wrecked  in  it,  and  reached  land  on 
the  east  coast  of  Greenland. 

The  story  of  Snasbjom  Holmsteinsson  and  his  companions, 
who  may  have  reached  East  Greenland  (?),  has  been  given 
above  (p.  264). 

An  early  voyage,^  which  is  said  to  have  been  made  along 
this  coast,  is  described  in  the  "  Floamanna-saga."  The 
Icelandic  chief,  Thorgils  Orrabeinsfostre,  is  said  to  have  left 
Iceland  about  the  year  looi,  with  his  wife,  children,  friends, 
and  thralls — some  thirty  persons  in  all — and  his  cattle,  to 
join  his  friend,  Eric  the  Red,  who  had  invited  him  to  Green- 
land. During  the  autumn  they  were  wrecked  on  the  east 
coast;  and  it  was  not  till  four  years  later,  during  which 
time    they    lived    by   whaling,    sealing,    and    fishing,    and    after 

1  If  the  Gunnbjornskerries  lay  on  the  east  coast,  then  Gunnbjorn  Ulfsson 
was  the  first  to  reach  it;  but,  as  has  been  pointed  out  above  (p.  261),  they  are 
more  likely  to  have  been  near  Cape  Farewell,  assuming  the  voyage  to  be 
historical. 
280 


VOYAGES   IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

adventures  of  many  kinds,  that  Thorgils  arrived  at  the  Eastern 
Settlement.  The  saga  is  of  late  date,  perhaps  about  1400; 
it  is  full  of  marvels  and  not  very  credible.  But  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  country,  with  glaciers  coming  down  to  the  sea, 
and  ice  lying  off  the  shore  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year, 
cannot  have  been  invented  without  some  knowledge  of  the 
east  coast  of  Greenland;  for  the  inhabited  west  coast  is 
entirely  different.  The  narrative  of  Thorgils'  expedition  may 
therefore  have  a  historical  kernel  [cf.  Nansen,  1890,  p.  253; 
Engl.  ed.  i.  275]  ;  and,  moreover,  it  gives  a  graphic  description 
of  the  difficulties  and  dangers  that  shipwrecked  voyagers  have 
to  overcome  in  arctic  waters;  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  gratui- 
tously full  of  superstitions  and  dreams  and  the  like,  besides 
other  improbabilities:  such  as  the  incident  of  the  travelers 
suffering  such  extremities  of  thirst  that  they  were  ready  to 
drink   sea-water    (with   urine)    to   preserve    their   lives,'    while 

1  This  incident  is  obviously  connected  with  Irish  legends,  with  which  that 
same  saga  shows  other  points  of  resemblance.  We  read  in  the  "  Floamanna- 
saga"  [cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  p.  118]:  "They  were  then  much  exhausted  by 
thirst;  but  water  was  nowhere  in  the  neighborhood.  Then  said  Starkad:  'I 
have  heard  it  said  that  when  their  lives  were  at  stake  men  have  mingled  sea- 
water  and  urine.'  They  then  took  the  baler,  .  .  .  made  this  mixture,  and 
asked  Thorgils  for  leave  to  drink  it.  He  said  it  might  indeed  be  excused,  but 
would  not  either  forbid  it  or  permit  it.  But  as  they  were  about  to  drink, 
Thorgils  ordered  them  to  give  him  the  baler,  saying  that  he  wished  to  say 
a  spell  over  their  drink  [or:  speak  over  the  bowl].  He  received  it  and  said: 
'  Thou  most  foul  beast,  that  delayest  our  voyage,  thou  shalt  not  be  the  cause 
that  I  or  others  drink  our  own  evacuation!'  At  that  moment  a  bird,  resem- 
bling a  young  auk,  flew  away  from  the  boat,  screaming.  Thorgils  thereupon 
emptied  the  baler  overboard.  They  then  row  on  and  see  running  water,  and 
take  of  it  what  they  want;  and  it  was  late  in  the  day.  This  bird  flew  north- 
wards from  the  boat.  Thorgils  said:  '  Late  has  this  bird  left  us,  and  I  would 
that  it  may  take  all  the  devilry  with  it;  but  we  must  rejoice  that  it  did  not  ac- 
complish its  desire.'  " 

In  Brandan's  first  voyage,  in  the  Irish  tale,  "  Betha  Brenainn,"  etc.,  or 
"  Imram  Brenaind"  (of  about  the  twelfth  century;  cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  137, 
319),  the  seafarers  one  day  suffered  such  thirst  that  they  were  near  to  death. 
They  then  saw  glorious  jets  of  water  falling  from  a  cliff.  His  companions 
asked  Brandan  whether  they  might  drink  of  the  water.  He  advised  them  first 
to  say  a  blessing  over  it;  but  when  this  was  done,  the  jets  stopped  running, 
and  they  saw  the  devil,  who  was  letting  the  water  out  of  himself,  and  killing 

281 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

rowing  along  a  coast  with  ice  and  snow  on  every  hand, 
where  there  cannot  have  been  any  lack  of  drinking  water. 
Thorgils,  or  the  man  to  whom  in  the  first  place  the  narrative 
may  be  due,  may  have  been  wrecked  in  the  autumn  on  the 
east  coast  of  Greenland,  near  Angmagsalik,  or  a  little  to  the 
south  of  it,  and  may  then  have  had  a  hard  struggle  before 
he  reached  Cape  Farewell  along  the  shore,  inside  the  ice; 
but  that  it  should  have  taken  four  years  is  improbable;  I 
have  myself  in  the  same  way  rowed  in  a  boat  the  greater 
part  of  the  same  distance  along  this  coast  in  twelve  days.  It  is 
hardly  possible  that  the  voyagers  should  have  lost  their  ship 
much  to  the  north  of  Angmagsalik,  as  the  ice  lies  off  the  coast 
there  usually  the  whole  year  round;  nor  is  it  credible  that  they 
should  have  arrived  far  north  near  Scoresby  Sound,  north  of  70° 
N.  lat.,  where  the  approach  is  easier;  for  they  had  no 
business  to  be  there,  if  they  were  making  for  the  Eastern  Set- 
tlement. 

In  the  Icelandic  annals  there  are  frequent  mentions  of 
voyagers  to  Greenland  being  shipwrecked,  and  most  of  these 
cases  doubtless  occurred  off  East  Greenland.  In  the  sagas  there 
are  many  narratives  of  such  wrecks,  or  of  people  who  have  come 
to  grief  on  this  coast. 

In  Bjom  Jonsson's  version  of  the  somewhat  extravagant  saga 
of  Lik-Lodin  we  read : ' 

those  who  drank  of  it.  The  sea  closed  over  the  devil,  in  order  that  thence- 
forth he  might  do  no  more  evil  to  anyone.  The  similarities  are  striking:  both 
are  perishing  of  thirst  and  about  to  drink  urine,  the  Icelanders  their  own, 
the  Irish  the  devil's.  They  ask  their  leaders— the  Icelanders  Thorgils,  the 
Irish  Brandan — whether  they  may  drink  it.  In  both  cases  the  leaders  require 
a  prayer  to  be  said  over  it.  Thereupon  in  both  cases  they  see  the  devil:  the 
Icelanders  in  the  form  of  a  bird  that  screams  and  finally  leaves  them  to  trou- 
ble them  no  more,  and  the  Irish  in  the  form  of  the  devil  himself,  who  is 
passing  water,  and  disappears  into  the  sea  to  do  no  more  evil.  The  Icelandic 
tale  is  to  some  extent  disconnected  and  incomprehensible,  but  is  explained  by 
being  compared  with  the  Irish;  one  thus  sees  how  there  may  originally  have 
been  a  connection  between  the  bird  (the  Evil  One)  and  the  drink,  which  is 
otherwise  obscure.  The  Icelandic  account  may  have  arisen  by  a  distortion 
and  adaptation,  due  to  oral  transmission,  of  the  Irish  legend, 

1  Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  p.  656. 
282 


VOYAGES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

"  Formerly  most  ships  were  always  wrecked  in  this  ice  from  the  northern 
bays,  as  is  related  at  length  in  the  Tosta  J'attr;  for  '  Lika-LoSinn '  had  his 
nickname  from  this,  that  in  summer  he  often  ransacked  the  northern  unin- 
habited regions  and  brought  to  church  the  corpses  of  men  that  he  found  in 
caves,  whither  they  had  come  from  the  ice  or  from  shipwreck;  and  by  them 
there  often  lay  carved  runes  about  all  the  circumstances  of  their  misfortunes 
and  sufferings." 

The  Northern  bays  here  must  mean  "  Hafsbotn,"  or  the 
Polar  Sea  to  the  north  of  Norway  and  Iceland;  the  ice  will 
then  be  that  which  thence  drifts  southward  along  the  east 
coast  of  Greenland.  According  to  another  ancient  MS.  of 
the  Tosta-('attr,i  Lik-Lodin  had  his  name  (which  means 
"  Corpse-Lodin  "),  "because  he  had  brought  the  bodies  of  Finn 
Fegin  and  his  crew  from  Finn's  booths,  east  of  the  glaciers  in 
Greenland."  This  also  shows  that  the  east  coast  is  referred  to; 
it  is  said  to  have  happened  a  few  years  before  Harold  Hardrada's 
fall  in  1066. 

In  the  Flateyjarbok's  narrative  of  Einar  Sokkason,  who 
sailed  from  Greenland  to  Norway  in  1123  to  bring  a  bishop 
to  the  country,  it  is  said,^  that  he  was  accompanied  on  his 
return  from  Norway  by  a  certain  Ambjorn  Austman  (i.e., 
man  from  the  east,  from  Norway)  and  several  Norwegians  on 
another  ship,  who  wished  to  settle  in  Greenland;  but  they 
were  lost  on  the  voyage.  Some  years  later,  about  11 29,  they 
were  found  dead  on  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  near  the 
Hvitserk  glacier,  by  a  Greenlander,  Sigurd  Njalsson.  "  He 
often  went  seal  hunting  in  the  autumn  to  the  uninhabited 
regions  [  i.e.,  on  the  east  coast] ;  he  was  a  great  seaman ; 
they  were  fifteen  altogether.  In  the  summer  they  came  to  the 
Hvitserk  glacier."  They  found  there  some  human  fireplaces, 
and  farther  on,  inside  a  fjord,  they  found  a  great  ship,  lying  on 
and  by  the  mouth  of  a  stream,  and  a  hut  and  a  tent,  and  there 
were  corpses  lying  in  the  tent,  and  some  more  lay  on  the 
ground  outside.  It  was  Arnbjdrn  and  his  men,  who  had  stayed 
there. 

1  Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  p.  66a, 

2  Ibid.  pp.  684  f. 

283 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

In  Gudmund  Arason's  Saga  and  in  the  Icelandic  annals 
[Storm,  1888,  pp.  22,  120,  121,  180,  181,  324,  477]  it  is  related 
that  in  11 89  the  ship  "  Stangarfoli,"  with  the  priest  Ingimund 
Thorgeirsson  and  others  on  board — on  the  way  from  Bergen  to 
Iceland — was  driven  westwards  to  the  uninhabited  regions  of 
Greenland,  and  every  man  perished, 

"  but  it  was  known  by  the  finding  of  their  ship  and  seven  men  in  a  cave  in  the 
uninhabited  regions  fourteen  winters'  later;  there  were  Ingimund  the  priest, 
he  was  whole  and  uncorrupted,  and  so  were  his  clothes;  but  six  skeletons  lay 
there  by  his  side,  and  wax,=  and  runes  telling  how  they  lost  their  lives.  And 
men  thought  this  a  great  sign  of  how  God  approved  of  Ingimund  the  priest's 
conduct  that  he  should  have  lain  out  so  long  with  whole  body  and  unhurt." 
[Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  p.  754;  Biskupa  Sogur,  1858,  i.  p.  435.] 

We  see  that  the  legend  of  the  Seven  Sleepers,  perhaps  from 
Paulus  Warnefridi  (see  above,  p.  156),  has  been  borrowed;  but 
here  it  is  only  one  of  the  seven  who  is  holy  and  unhurt.  The 
shipwreck  itself  may  nevertheless  be  historical.^  The  craft  was 
doubtless  lost  on  the  southern  east  coast  of  Greenland,  near 
Cape  Farewell,  which  part  was  commonly  frequented,  and  where 
the  remains  were  found. 

It  is  also  related  in  Gudmund  Arason's  Saga  that,  some 
time  before  this,  another  ship  was  lost  in  the  uninhabited 
regions  of  Greenland,  with  the  priest  Ingimund's  brother, 
Einar  Thorgeirsson,  on  board;  but  the  crew  quarreled  over 
the  food.  Einar  escaped  with  two  others  and  made  for  the 
settlement  (i.e.,  the  Eastern  Settlement)  across  the  glaciers 
(i.e.,  the  inland  ice).  There  they  lost  their  lives,  when  only  a 
day's  journey  from  the  settlement,  and  they  were  found 
one  or  two  winters  (i.e.,  years?)  later  (Einar's  body  was  then 

1  According  to  the  "  Islandske  Annaler"  [pp.  121,  181,  477]  it  was  in  1200, 
therefore  eleven  years  later,  not  fourteen;  it  is  there  related  merely  that  Ingi- 
mund the  priest  was  found  uncorrupted  in  the  uninhabited  region,  but  the 
other  six  are  not  mentioned. 

-  I.e.,  wax  tablets  to  write  on. 

3  The   Arab    Qazwini    (thirteenth    century)    tells  a   story,   after   Omar   al 
'Udhri  (eleventh  century),  of  a  cave  in  the  west  where  lie  four  dead  men  un- 
corrupted [cf.  G.  Jacobs,  1892,  p.  168]. 
284 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

whole  and  unhurt).  The  shipwreck  may  consequently  be  sup- 
posed to  have  taken  place  on  the  southernmost  part  of  the  east 
coast. 

In  the  Icelandic  annals  it  is  mentioned  (in  various  MSS.) 
that  a  new  land  was  discovered  west  of  Iceland  in  1285. 
A  MS.  of  annals,  of  about  1306  (written,  that  is,  about  twenty 
years  after  the  event),  says  that  in  1285:  "  fandz  land 
vestr  undan  Islande "  ("  a  land  was  found  to  the  west  of 
Iceland.")  A  later  MS.  (of  about  1360)  says  of  the  same 
discovery:  "  Funduz  Duneyiar "  ("the  Down  Islands  were 
found.")  In  another  old  MS.  of  annals  there  is  an  addition  by 
a  later  hand :  "  fundu  Helga  synir  nyia  land  Adalbrandr 
ok  porvalldr "  ("  Helge's  sons  Adalbrand  and  Thorvald  found 
the  new  land").  Finally  we  read  in  a  late  copy  of  an 
old  MS.  of  annals:  "Helga  synir  sigldu  i  Groenlandz 
obygSir  "  ^  ("  Helge's  sons  sailed  to  the  uninhabited  regions 
of  Greenland.").  According  to  this  last  statement,  this  would 
refer  to  the  discovery  of  land  on  the  east  coast  of  Greenland, 
west  of  Iceland.-  It  may  have  been  at  Angmagsalik  or 
farther  south  on  the  east  coast  that  Helge's  sons — two 
Icelandic  priests — landed.^  In  the  late  summer  this  part 
is  usually  free  from  ice.  From  other  Icelandic  notices  it 
may  be  concluded  that  they  returned  to  Iceland  the  same 
autumn.  We  see  that  some  years  later  the  Norwegian  king 
Eric  attempted  to  get  together  an  expedition  to  this  new 
land  under  the  so-called  Landa-Rolf,  who  was  sent  to 
Iceland   for  the   purpose   in    1289.     In    1290   Rolf  went   about 

1  Cf.  "Islandske  Annaler,"  edited  by  G.  Storm,  1888,  pp.  50,  70,  142,  196, 

337,  383. 

2  Cf.  G.  Storm's  arguments  to  this  effect,  1888,  pp.  263,  f.;  1887,  pp.  71,  f. 

3  It  is  true  that  in  Bishop  Gissur  Einarsson's  (bishop  from  1541  to  1548) 
copy-book  there  is  an  addition  to  the  ancient  sailing  directions  for  Greenland 
that  "  experienced  men  have  said  that  one  must  sail  south-west  to  New  Land 
[Nyaland]  from  the  Krysuvik  mountains"  (on  the  Reykjanes  peninsula)  [see 
Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  215;  and  G.  Storm,  Hist.  Tidskr.,  1888,  p.  264];  but  it 
is  impossible  to  attach  much  weight  to  a  statement  of  direction  in  a  tradition 
260  years  old;  it  may  easily  have  been  altered  or  "improved"  by  later  mis- 
conceptions. 

285 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Iceland,  inviting  people  to  join  the  Newland  expedition;  but 
it  is  uncertain  whether  it  ever  came  to  anything,  and  in  1295 
Landa-Rolf  died.  All  this  points  to  the  east  coast  of  Greenland 
having  been  little  known  at  that  time,  otherwise  a  landing  there 
could  not  be  spoken  of  as  the  discovery  of  a  new  land;  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  why  the  king  should  send  Rolf  to  Iceland  to  get 
up  an  expedition  to  a  country  which,  as  they  must  have  been 
aware,  was  closed  by  ice  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  As 
to  the  situation  on  this  coast  of  islands,  to  which  the  name  of 
Down  Islands  might  be  appropriate,  I  shall  not  venture  to  offer 
an  opinion. 

In    the    introduction    to    Hauk's    Landnamabok    we    read: 
"  en  doegr  sigling  er  til  vbygda  a  Groenalandi  or  Kolbeins  ey 


The  southern  glacier  (Hvitserk)  in  62°  10'  N.  lat.;  seen  from 
the  drift-ice  in  July,  1888 

i  nortSr  "  ("  it  is  a  day's  sail  to  the  uninhabited  regions  of  Green- 
land northward  from  Kolbein's  island").  Kolbein's  island  is 
the  little  Mevenklint,  out  at  sea  to  the  north  of  Grim's  island 
and  56  nautical  miles  (100  kilometers)  north  of  Iceland.  The 
uninhabited  regions  here  referred  to  are  most  probably  East 
Greenland  at  about  69°  N.  lat.  (Egede  Land),  which  lies  to 
the  north-west  (to  the  north  there  is  no  land,  unless  the  mag- 
netic north  is  meant).  But  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  the 
Icelanders  ever  reached  land  on  this  part  of  the  coast,  which 
is  nearly  always  closed  by  ice.  It  may  be  supposed  that  they 
often  sailed  along  the  edge  of  the  ice  when  seal  hunting,  as 
the  bladder-nose  is  abundant  there  in  summer;  they  may 
then  have  seen  the  land  inside,  and  so  knew  of  it,  without 
having  reached  it.  In  this  way  the  statement  as  to  the  distance 
286 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

may  have  originated,  and  the  day's  sail  may  mean  to  the  edge 
of  the  ice,  whence  the  land  is  visible. 

According  to  statements  in  the  fourth  part  of  the  "  Rymbegla  "  [1780,  p. 
482],  a  "  doegr's  "  sail  (dcEgr  =  half  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours)  was  equiva- 
lent to  a  distance  of  two  degrees  of  latitude.  But  ev«n  if  we  accept  this  large 
estimate,  it  will  not  suffice  for  the  distance  between  Mevenklint  and  the  coast 
of  Greenland  to  the  north-west  of  it,  which  is  about  equal  to  three  degrees  of 
latitude  (180  geographical  miles). 

It  has  been  assumed  that  the  Icelanders  and  Norwegians 
were  acquainted  with  the  east  coast  of  Greenland  north  of 
70°  N.  lat.,  and  visited  it  for  hunting  seals,  etc.  But  in  order  to 
reach  it,  it  is  nearly  always  necessary  to  sail  through  ice,  and 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  one  has  to  go  as  far 
north  as  Jan  Mayen,  or  farther,  to  find  the  ice  sufficiently 
open  to  allow  one  to  reach  the  land.  It  is  a  somewhat  tricky 
piece  of  sailing,  which  requires  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
ice  conditions;  and  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  anyone 
should  have  acquired  it  without  having  frequently  .been 
among  the  ice  with  a  definite  purpose.  That  storm-driven 
vessels  should  have  been  accidentally  cast  ashore  on  this 
coast  is  unlikely;  as  a  rule  they  would  be  stopped  by  the  ice 
before  they  came  so  far.  We  may  doubtless  believe  that  the 
Norwegians  and  Icelanders  sailed  over  the  whole  Arctic 
Ocean,  along  the  edge  of  the  ice,  when  hunting  seals  and  the 
valuable  walrus;  but  that  on  their  sealing  expeditions  they 
should  have  made  a  practice  of  penetrating  far  into  the  ice 
is  not  credible,  since  their  clinker-built  craft  were  not 
adapted  to  sailing  among  ice;  nor  have  we  any  information 
that  would  point  to  this.  It  is  nevertheless  not  entirely 
impossible  that  they  should  have  reached  the  northern  east 
coast,  since  it  may  be  comparatively  free  from  ice  in  late 
summer  and  autumn.  There  would  be  plenty  of  seals,  and 
especially  of  walrus,  and  on  land  there  were  reindeer  and 
musk-ox,  which  latter,  however,  is  nowhere  mentioned  in  Norse 
literature. 

The  old  sea  route,  the  so-called  "  Eiriks-stefna,"  from  Iceland 

287 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

to  Greenland  (i.e.,  the  Greenland  Settlements)  went  westward 
from  Snaefellsnes  until  one  sighted  the  glaciers  of  Greenland, 
when  one  steered  south-west  along  the  drift-ice  until  well 
past  Hvarf,  etc.  This  is  the  route  that  Eric  followed,  accord- 
ing to  the  oldest  accounts  in  the  "  Landnama,"  when  he  sailed 
to  Greenland,  and  the  glacier  he  first  sighted  in  Greenland  is  there 
called  "MiSjokull"  (see  above,  p.  267).  This  name  (the  mid- 
dle glacier)  shows  that  two  other  glaciers  must  have  been 
known,  one  to  the  north  and  one  to  the  south,  as  indeed  is 
explained  in  a  far  later  work,  the  so-called  "  Gripla "  (date 
uncertain,  copied  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Bjorn  Jonsson), 
where  we  read:' 


The  mountains  from  Tingmiarmiut  Fjord  nor 

"From  Bjarmeland  [i.e.,  northern  Russia]  uninhabited  regions  lie  north- 
ward as  far  as  that  which  is  called  Greenland.  But  there  are  bays  [botnar 
ganga  {>ar  fyrir]  and  the  land  turns  towards  the  south-west;  there  are  glaciers 
and  fjords,  and  islands  lying  off  the  glaciers;  as  far  as  [or  rather,  beyond]  the 
first  glacier  they  have  not  explored;  to  the  second  is  a  journey  of  half  a 
month,  to  the  third  a  week's;  it  is  nearest  the  settlement;  it  is  called  Hvitserk; 
there  the  land  turns  to  the  north;  but  he  who  would  not  miss  the  settlement, 
let  him  steer  to  the  south-west "  (that  is,  to  get  round  and  clear  of  the  drift- 
ice  that  lies  off  Cape  Farewell). 

Not  taking  the  distances  into  account,  a  sail  of  half  a  month 
and  of  a  week,  this  is  an  admirable  description  of  East  Green- 
land from  about  69°  N.  lat.  southwards.  By  "  glaciers  "  is  ob- 
viously meant  parts  of  the  inland  ice,  which  is  the  most  notice- 
able feature  of  this  coast,  and  which  could  not  easily  be  omitted 
in  a  description  of  it.  When  we  read  that  there  are  glaciers 
and  fjords,  and  that  islands  lie  off  the  glaciers,  then  everyone 
who    is    familiar    with    this    part    of    Greenland    must    be    re- 


288 


1  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  pp.  222-224. 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

minded  of  what  catches  the  eye  at  the  first  sight  of  this 
coast  from  the  sea:  the  dark  stretches  of  land,  not  cov- 
ered by  snow,  and  the  islands,  lying  in  front  of  the  vast 
white  sheath  of  the  inland  ice,  which  is  indented  by  bays 
and  fjords.  The  three  glaciers  mentioned  cannot,  in  my 
opinion,  be  three  separate  mountain-summits  covered  with 
snow  or  ice,  as  has  frequently  been  supposed.  There  is 
such  a  number  of  high  summits  in  this  country  that,  al- 
though I  have  sailed  along  the  greater  part  of  it,  I  am 
unable  to  name  three  as  specially  prominent.  If  one  has 
seen  from  the  sea  the  white  snow-sheet  of  Vatnajokel  in 
Iceland  (compare  also,  on  a  smaller  scale,  the  Hardangerjokel 


;5'  N.  Lat.    Seen  from  the  drift-ice  in  July,  1888 

and  others  in  Norway),  then  perhaps  it  will  be  easier  to 
understand  what  the  ancient  Icelanders  meant  by  their  three 
glaciers  on  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  where  the  mass  of 
glacier  has  a  still  mightier  and  more  striking  effect.  Now, 
on  that  part  of  it  which  they  and  the  Greenlanders  knew,  or 
had  seen  from  the  sea — and  which  extends  towards  the 
south-west  (as  we  read)  from  about  70°  N.  lat.' — there  are 
precisely  three  tracts  where  the  inland  ice  covers  the  whole 
country  and  reaches  to  the  very  shore,  so  that  the  glacier 
surface  is  visible  from  the  sea,  and  forms  the  one  conspicuous 
feature  that  must  strike  everyone  who  sails  along  the  outer 
edge  of  the  ice  (or  drifts  in  the  ice,  as  I  have  twice  done). 
The  northernmost  tract  is  to  the  north  of  67°  N.  lat.  (see 
map,  p.  259) ;  there  the  inland  ice  covers  the  coast  down  to 
the   sea   itself.    This  was  the    "  Northern   glacier,"   which   no 

^  As  we  have  said,  they  can  scarcely  have  known  anything  of  the  coast  to 
the  north  of  this,  which  runs  in  a  more  northerly  direction. 

289 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

one  was  able  to  approach  on  account  of  the  drift-ice,  but 
which  was  only  seen  from  a  great  distance.  It  was  not 
until  a  few  years  ago  that  Captain  Amdrup  succeeded  in 
traveling  along  this  part  of  the  country  in  boats,  inshore  of 
the  ice. 

The  second  tract  is  the  coast  by  Pikiutdlek  and  Umivik, 
south  of  Angmagsalik,  between  Sermilikfjord  (65°  36'  N. 
lat.)  and  Cape  Mosting  (63^  40'  N.  lat.),  where  the  inland  ice 
covers  the  whole  coast-land,  and  only  a  few  mountain 
summits,  or  "  Nunataks,"  rise  up,  and  bare,  scattered 
islands  and  tongues  of  land  lie  in  front.  This  was  the 
"  Mi6J9kull  "  ("  Middle  glacier  "),  which  was  the  first  land  made 


The  northern  part  of  the  "  MiCjpkull  (to  the  left)  and  the  country  to  the  west 
of  Sermilik-fjord,  in  65°  40'  N.  lat.     Seen  from  the  drift-ice  in  July,  1888 

in  sailing  west  from  Snasfellsnes,  and  which  was  a  good  and 
unmistakable  sea-mark.  In  some  MSS.  it  is  called  "  hinn 
mikla  Jpkull "  ("the  great  glacier").  There  the  sea  is  often 
comparatively  free  of  ice  in  August  and  September,  but  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  voyagers  to  Greenland  did  not,  as  a  rule, 
try  to  land  there;  in  the  words  of  Ivar  Bardsson's  directions, 
they  were  to  "  take  their  course  from  Snafellsnes  and  sail 
due  west  for  a  day  and  a  night,  but  then  to  steer  to  the 
south-west,  in  order  to  avoid  the  above-mentioned  ice "  (cf. 
above,  p.  262). 

The  third  tract  is  the  coast  south  of  Tingmiarmiut  and 
Mogens  Heinesen's  Fjord  (62°  20'  N.  lat.),  where  again  the 
inland  ice  is  predominant,  and  the  only  conspicuous  feature 
that  is  first  seen  from  the  sea.  This  was  the  third  or 
"  Southern  glacier " ;  it  lay  nearest  to  Hvarf  and  was  the 
sure  sea-mark  before  rounding  the  southern  end  of  the 
country.  It  appears  to  me  that  in  this  way  we  have  a 
290 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

natural  explanation  of  what  these  disputed  glaciers  were. 
Between  them  lay  long  stretches  of  mountainous  coast. 
Northward  from  Cape  Farewell  to  the  "  Southern  glacier " 
are  high  mountains,  so  that  one  does  not  see  the  even  expanse 
of  the  inland  ice  from  the  sea.  North  of  the  "  Southern  glacier  " 
is  the  fjord-indented  mountainous  country  about  Tingmiar- 
miut,  Umanak,  and  Skjoldungen,  and  so  northward  as  far 
as  Cape  Mosting;  there  the  mighty  white  line  of  the  inland 
ice  is  wholly  concealed  behind  a  wall  of  lofty  peaks.  On  the 
north  side  of  the  "  MitSjokull "  again  is  the  mountain  country 
about  Angmagsalik,  from  Sermilikfjord  north-eastwards, 
with  a  high  range  of  mountains,  so  that  neither  is  the  inland 


^-^^^^JS'^i^.iiMi^a^as^^^^'tr:!^ 


The  mountains  near  Angmagsalik,  east  of  Sermilikfjord. 
Seen  from  the  drift-ice  in  July,  1888 

ice  seen  from  the  sea  there.     The  most  conspicuous  summit  of 
this  range  is  Ingolf's  Fjeld. 

Thus,  according  to  my  view,  the  statements  as  to  the 
glaciers  on  the  east  coast  of  Greenland  are  easily  explained. 
It  is  a  different  matter  when  we  come  to  the  two  names 
"  Blaserkr "  and  "  Hvitserkr,"  which,  in  later  times  es- 
pecially, were  those  most  frequently  used.  They  have 
often  been  confused  and  interchanged,  and  while  "  Blaserkr " 
is  found  in  the  oldest  authorities,  the  name  "  Hvitserkr " 
becomes  more  and  more  common  in  later  writers.  More 
recent  authors  have  frequently  regarded  them  as  standing 
in  a  certain  opposition  to  each  other,  one  meaning  a  dark 
glacier  or  summit,  and  the  other  a  white  one,  which  may 
indeed  seem  natural.  But  it  is  striking  that,  while 
"  Blaserkr "  alone  is  mentioned  in  the  oldest  authorities, 
such  as  the  "  Landnama  "  (and  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  in  the 
Hauksbok),  it  soon  disappears  almost  entirely  from  literature, 

291 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

and  is  replaced  by  "  Hvitserkr,"  which  is  first  mentioned 
in  MSS.  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  later;  and  in  the 
fifteenth  century  MS.  [A.M.  557,  qv.]  of  the  Saga  of  Eric 
the  Red  (as  in  other  late  extracts  from  the  same  saga) 
we  find  "  Hvitserkr "  instead  of  "  Blaserkr."  ^  I  have  not 
found  the  two  names  used  contemporaneously  in  any 
Icelandic  MS.,  it  is  either  one  or  the  other,  and  nowhere  are 
both  names  found  as  designating  two  separate  places  on  the 
coast  of  Greenland.  It  may,  therefore,  be  somewhat  rash 
to  assume,  as  has  been  done  hitherto,  that  they  were  two 
"  mountains,"  one  of  them  lying  a  certain  distance  to  the 
north    on   the    east    coast   of    Greenland,    and    the    other  near 


The  inland  ice  at  "  MiSjpkull."    In  the  centre  the  mountain  Kiatak, 
64°  20'  N.  lat.     Seen  from  the  drift-ice  in  July,  1888 

Cape  Farewell.  The  view  that  they  were  mountains  is  not  a  new 
one.  In  Ivar  Bardsson's  description  Hvitserk  is  called  "  a  high 
mountain"  near  Hvarf;  while  Bjbrn  Jonsson  of  Skardsa  says 
that  it  is  a  "  fuglabiarg  i  landnordurhafi  "  (i.e.,  a  fowling  cliff  in 
the  Polar  Sea). 

From  the  meaning  of  the  names — the  dark  ("  bla ")' 
sark  and  the  white  sark — we  should  be  inclined  to  think  that 
they  were  applied  to  snow-fields,  or  glaciers,  like,  for  in- 
stance, such  names  as  Sneheetta  and  Lodalskapa  in  Norway. 
But  another  possibility  is  that  it  was  the  "  form  "  of  the  sark 
that  was  thought  of,  and  that  the  names  were  applied  to 
mountain  summits ;  in  a  similar  way  "  stakk "  (stack,  or 
gown)  is  used  for  peaks  in  Norway  (cf.  Lbvstakken,  near  Ber- 
gen) ;  and  in  Shetland  corresponding  names  are  known  for  high 
cliffs   on  the   sea:   Blostakk    (=Blastakkr),   Grostakk    (=Gra- 

1  Cf.  G.  Storm,  1891,  p.  7;  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i.  p.  361. 
292 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

stakkr),  Kwitastakk  (=Hviti  stakkr),  Gronastakk  and  Groni- 
stakk  (=Groeni  stakkr,  cliffs  with  grass-grown  tops),  etc.  [cf.  J. 
Jakobsen,  1901,  p.  151]. 

In  the  Landnamabok  (both  Hauksbok  and  Sturlubok)  we 
read :  "  Eirekr  sigldi  vndan  Snaef ells  nese.  En  hann  kom 
utan  at  Midi9kli  f'ar  sem  Blaserkr  heitir."  ("Eric  sailed 
from  Snaefellsnes,  and  made  the  Mid-glacier  at  a  place 
called  Blue-Sark.")  In  Eric  the  Red's  Saga  this  has  been 
altered  to  "  hann  kom  utan  at  jpkli  f'eim  er  Blaserkr 
heitir."  ("  He  made  the  glacier  that  is  called  Blue-Sark.") 
It  is  obvious  that  the  "  Landnama  "  text  is  the  more  original, 
and    thus    two    explanations    are    possible:    either    Blaserkr 


The  mountains  about  Ingolf's  Fjeld,  seen  from  a  distance  in 
June,  1888 

is  a  part  of  the  glacier,  or  it  is  a  dark  mountain  seen  on  this 
part  of  the  coast.  I  cannot  remember  any  place  where  the 
inland  ice  of  this  district,  seen  at  a  distance  from  the  drift-ice, 
had  a  perceptibly  darker  color;  its  effect  is  ever)rwhere  a 
brilliant  white.  On  approaching  an  ice-glacier,  as,  for 
instance,  the  Colberger  Heide  (64°  N.  lat.)  [cf.  Nansen,  1890, 
p.  370;  Engl,  ed.,  i.  423],  it  may  appear  somewhat  darker  and 
of  a  bluish  tinge;  but  this  can  never  have  been  a  recognizable 
landmark  at  any  distance.  One  is  therefore  tempted  to  believe 
that  Blaserkr  was  a  black,  bare  mountain-peak.  But  the  peaks 
that  show  up  along  the  edge  of  the  "  MiSjokull "  (between 
Sermilik  and  Cape  Mosting)  are  all  comparatively  low;  the 
mountain-summit  Kiatak,  near  Umivik  [see  Nansen,  1890, 
PP-  370,  374»  444;  Engl,  ed.,  i.  423,  429,  ii.  13],  answers  best 
as  regards  shape,  and  is  conspicuous  enough,  but  it  is  only 
2450   feet   high.     It   is   possible   that   Blaserkr   did   not   lie   in 

293 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

MitSjokuU  itself,  but  was  the  lofty  Ingolf's  Fjeld  (7300  feet 
high),  which  is  the  first  mountain  one  sees  far  out  at  sea  on 
approaching  East  Greenland  from  Iceland;  and  it  is  seen  to 
the  north  in  sailing  past  Cape  Dan  and  in  towards  MiSjokuU. 
It  may  then  have  been  confused  with  the  latter  in  later  times. 
But  this  supposition  is  doubtful.  The  most  natural  way  for  the 
Icelanders  when  making  for  Greenland  must  in  any  case  have 
been  first  to  make  the  edge  of  the  ice,  west-north-west  from 
Snaefellsnes,  when  they  sighted  Ingolf's  Fjeld  (or  Blaserkr?); 
then  they  followed  the  ice  west  or  west-south-west,  and  came 
straight  in  to  MiSjgkull,  at  about  65°  N.  lat.,  or  the  same  lati- 
tude as  Snaefellsnes.  Here  the  edge  of  the  ice  turns  southward, 
following  the  land,  and  the  course  has  to  be  altered  in  order 
to  sail  past  the  Southern  glacier  and  round  Hvarf.  This  agrees 
well  with  most  descriptions  of  the  voyage,  and  among  them 
the  most  trustworthy.  But  the  names  have  often  been  con- 
fused, Hvitserk  and  Blaserk  especially  have  been  inter- 
changed ;  '  and  this  is  not  surprising,  since  the  men  who 
wrote  in  Iceland  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were 
themselves  unacquainted  with  these  waters. 

The  name  "  Hvitserkr "  would  appear  most  appropriate 
to  a  glacier,  and  in  reviewing  the  various  contexts  in  which 
it  is  mentioned  in  the  narratives,  my  impression  is  rather 
that  in  later  times  it  was  often  used  as  a  name  for  the  inland 
ice  itself  on  the  east  and  south  coasts  of  Greenland;  and 
as,  on  the  voyage  to  the  Eastern  Settlement,  the  inland  ice 
was  most  seen  on  the  southern  part  of  the  east  coast,  which 
was  also  resorted  to  for  seal  hunting,  the  name  Hvitserk 
became  especially  applied  to  the  Southern  glacier,  as  in  the 
tale  of  Einar  Sokkason  (see  above,  p.  283)  ;  but  it  might  also 
be  the  Mid-glacier.     This  view  is  supported  by,  for  instance, 

1  The  mathematician  and  cosmographer  Jacob  Ziegler  (ob.  1549)  in  his 
work  "Scondia"  (printed  at  Strasburg,  1536)  placed  the  promontory  of  Hvit- 
serk ("  Hvetsarg  promontorium")  in  67°  N.  lat.  [cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii. 
pp.  500,  503].  This  may  be  the  usual  confusion  with  Blaserk.  It  happens  to 
be  by  no  means  ill  suited  to  Ingolf's  Fjeld,  which  lies  in  66°  25'  N.  lat. 
294 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

the  so-called  Walkendorff  addition  to  Ivar  Bardsson's  description, 
where  the  following  passage  occurs  about  the  voyage  from  Ice- 
land to  Greenland   [Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  491]: 

Item,  when  one   is  south   of  Breedefjord  in  Iceland,   then  he  must  steeA 
westward  until  he   sees  Hvidserch  in  Greenland,  and  then  steer  south-west, 
until  the  above-mentioned  Hvidserch  is  to  the  north  of  him;  thus  may  one  with 
God's  help  freely  seek  Greenland,  without  much  danger  from  ice,  and  with 
God's  help  find  Eric's  fjord." 

It  is  clearly  enough  the  inland  ice  itself,  the  most 
prominent  feature  on  the  east  coast,  that  is  here  called 
Hvidserch.  It  is  first  seen  at  MiSjokuU,  in  coming  west- 
wards from  Iceland;  and  one  has  the  inland  ice  (ice-blink) 
on  the  north  when  about  to  round  Cape  Farewell.  No 
single  mountain  can  possibly  fit  this  description;  but  this 
does  not  exclude  the  possibility  of  others  having  erroneously 
connected  the  name  with  such  a  mountain,  in  the  same  way 
as  Danish  sailors  of  recent  times  have  applied  it  to  a  lofty 
island,  "  Dadloodit,"  in  the  southernmost  part  of  Greenland 
[Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i.  p.  453].  The  fact  that  Hvitserk  in  Ivar 
Bardsson's  description  is  called  "  a  high  mountain,"  which 
is  seen  one  day  before  reaching  Hvarf,  must  be  due  to  a  simi- 
lar misunderstanding.  As  Blaserk,  although  originally  it  may 
have  been  a  mountain,  was  confounded  with  the  Mid-glacier, 
it  is  comprehensible  that  the  name  Blaserk  should  be  gradually 
superseded  by  Hvitserk. 

In  one  or  two  passages  of  the  old  narratives  it  is  related  that 
when  one  was  half-way  between  Iceland  and  Greenland  one  could 
see  at  the  same  time,  in  clear  weather,  Snaefells  glacier  in  Ice- 
land and  Blaserk  (or  Hvitserk)  '  in  Greenland.     According  to 

1  In  the  Walkendorff  additions  to  Ivar  Bardsson's  description  of  Green- 
land it  is  called  Hvitserk,  which  may  be  a  confusion  with  Blaserk;  the  pas- 
sage continues:  "And  it  is  credibly  reported  that  it  is  not  thirty  sea  leagues 
to  land,  in  whichever  direction  one  would  go,  whether  to  Greenland  or  to 
Iceland"  [see  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  491].  The  distance  here  given  is  re- 
markably correct.  In  Bjorn  Jonsson's  "  Gronlands  Annaler "  (written  before 
1646)  it  is  related  that  "  Sira  Einar  Snorrason,"  priest  of  Stadarstad,  near 
Snsfellnes    (he   became   priest  there   in   1502),  owned  a  large   twelve-oared 

295 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

my  experience  this  is  not  possible,  even  if  we  call  in  the  aid 
of  a  powerful  refraction,  or  even  mirage ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
one  can  see  the  reflections  of  the  land  or  the  ice  on  the  sky, 
and  when  sailing  (along  the  edge  of  the  ice)  eastwards  or  west- 
wards, one  can  very  weU  see  the  top  of  the  Snasfells  glacier  and 
the  top  of  Ingolf's  Fjeld  on  the  same  day. 

The  Icelandic  accounts  mention  several  places  in  East  Green- 
land, such  as  "  Kross-eyjar,"  "  FinnsbuSir,"  "  Berufjord " 
("  bera  "  =  she-bear),  and  the  fjord  "  Ollum-Lengri."  Frequent 
expeditions  for  seal  hunting  were  made  to  these  places  from  the 
Eastern  Settlement,  and  they  must  have  lain  near  it,  just  north 
of  Cape  Farewell. 


VOYAGES  TO   THE  NORTHERN   WEST   COAST   OF   GREENLAND, 
NORDRSETUR,  AND  BAFFIN  BAY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

To  the  north  of  the  northernmost  inhabited  fjords  of  the 
Western  Settlement  lay  the  uninhabited  regions.  Thither 
the  Greenlanders  resorted  every  summer  for  seal  hunting; 
there  lay  what  they  called  the  "  NorSrsetur "  ("  seta " 
=  place  of  residence;  the  northern  stations  or  fishing-places), 
and  it  is  doubtless  partly  to  these  districts  that  reference  is 
made  in  Eric  the  Red's  Saga,  where  it  is  said  of  Thorhall  the 
Hunter  that  "  he  had  long  been  with  Eric  hunting  in  summer," 
and  that  "  he  had  a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  uninhabited 
regions."  We  have  no  information  as  to  how  far  north  the 
longest  expeditions  of  the  Greenlanders  extended,  but  we 
know  that  they  reached  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern 
Upemivik;  for,  twenty-eight  miles  to  the  north-west  of  it- 
boat,  which,  with  a  cargo  of  dried  cod,  was  carried  away  from  Sndverdarnes 
(the  western  point  of  Snaefellsnes)  "  and  drifted  out  to  sea,  so  that  they  saw 
both  the  glaciers,  as  Gunnbjorn  had  done  formerly,  both  Snasfells  glacier  and 
Blaserk  in  Greenland;  they  had  thus  come  near  to  Eric's  course  [Eiriks- 
stefnu]  "  [Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i.  p.  123].  Here,  then,  we  have  the  same  idea 
that  both  glaciers  can  be  seen  simultaneously,  as  is  also  found  in  Bjorn's 
work  with  reference  to  Gunnbjorn  Ulfsson's  voyage  (see  above,  p.  263). 
296 


VOYAGES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

on  a  little  island  called  Kingigtorsuak,  in  72°  55'  N.  lat. — 
three  cairns  are  said  to  have  been  found  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  (before  1824) ;  and  in  one  of  them  a  small 
runic  stone,  with  the  inscription :  "  Erling  Sigvathsson, 
Bjarne  Thordarson,  and  Endride  Oddson  on  the  Sunday 
before  '  gagndag '  [i.e.,  April  25]  erected  these  cairns  and 
cleared  .  .  ."  ^  Then  follow  six  secret  runes,  which  it  was 
formerly  sought  to  interpret,  erroneously,  as  a  date,  1135. 
Prof.  L.  F.  Laflfler  has  explained  them  as  meaning  ice ;  ^  it 
would  then  read  "  and  cleared  away  ice."  Judging  from  the 
language,  the  inscription  would  be  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  ^ 
Prof.  Magnus  Olsen  (in  a  letter  to  me)  thinks  it  might  date 
from  about  1300,  or 
perhaps  a  little  later. 
Why  the  cairns  were 
built  seems  mysteri- 
ous. It  is  possible 
that  they  were  sea- 
marks for  fishing- 
grounds;  but  it  is 
not    likely    that    the 

Greenlanders  were  in  the  habit  of  going  so  far  north.  One 
would  be  more  inclined  to  think  they  were  set  up  as  a 
monument  of  a  remarkable  expedition,  which  had  penetrated 
to  regions  previously  unknown;  but  why  build  more  than 
one  cairn?  Was  there  one  for  each  man?  The  most 
remarkable  thing  is  that  the  cairns  are  stated  to  have  been 
set  up  in  April,  when  the  sea  in  that  locality  is  covered 
with    ice.     The   three    men    must    either   have    wintered  there 


Runic  stone  from  Kingigtorsuak  [after 
A.  A.  Bjornbo] 


1  Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  843.  Captain  Graah  brought  the  stone  to  Den- 
mark in  1824. 

2  In  a  paper  read  before  the  Archaeological  Society  at  Stockholm,  March 
13.  1905-  Cf.  "Svenska  Dagbladet,"  March  14,  1905.  I  owe  this  reference  to 
Prof.  Magnus  Olsen. 

2  Cf.  A.  Bugge,  1898,  p.  506.  By  a  printer's  error,  seventeenth  century  is 
given  instead  of  fourteenth. 

297 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

in  the  north,  which  seems  the  more  probable  alternative; 
they  may  then  have  been  starving,  and  the  object  of  the  cairns 
w^as  to  call  the  attention  of  possible  future  travelers  to  their 
bodies — or  they  may  have  come  the  same  spring  over  the  ice 
from  the  south,  and  in  that  case  they  most  probably  traveled 
with  Eskimo  dog-sledges,  and  were  on  a  hunting  expedition,  per- 
haps for  bears.  But  they  cannot  have  traveled  northward  from 
the  Eastern  or  Western  Settlements  the  same  spring.  In  any 
case  they  may  have  been  in  company  with  Eskimo,  whom  we 
know  to  have  lived  on  Disco  Bay,  and  probably  also  farther  south, 
at  that  time.  From  them  the  Norsemen  may  have  learnt  to  hunt 
on  the  ice,  by  which  they  were  able  to  support  themselves  in  the 
north  during  the  winter. 

The  earliest  mention  of  hunting  expeditions  to  the  northern 
west  coast  of  Greenland  is  found  in  the  "  Historia  Norvegiae  " 
(thirteenth  century),  where  it  is  said  that  hunters  "  to  the  north  " 
(of  the  Greenlanders)  come  across  "  certain  small  people  whom 
they  call  Skraslings  "  (see  later,  chap.  x.). 

There  are  few  references  to  the  "  NorSrsetur  "  in  the  litera- 
ture that  has  been  preserved.  A  lay  on  the  subject,  "  NortSr- 
setudrapa,"  was  known  in  the  Middle  Ages,  written  by  an  other- 
wise unknown  skald,  Sveinn.  Only  a  few  short  fragments  of  it 
are  known  from  "  Skalda,"  Snorra-Edda  [cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind., 
iii.  pp.  235,  f.].  It  is  wild  and  gloomy,  and  speaks  of  the  ugly 
sons  of  Fornjot  (the  storms)  who  were  the  first  to  drift  (i.e.,  with 
snow),  and  of  .^gi's  storm-loving  daughters  (the  waves),  who 
wove  and  drew  tight  the  hard  sea-spray,  fed  by  the  frost  from 
the  mountains. 

Reference  is  also  made  to  these  hunting  expeditions  to  the 
north  in  "  Skald-Helga  Rimur,"  where  we  read  [Gronl.  hist. 
Mind.,  ii.  p.  492] : 


Gronlands  var  I'ar  bygfar  sporSr. 


"  Gumnar   foru  i   Greipar  norSr      "  Men  went  north  to  Greipar 

There  was  the  end  of  Greenland's  habita- 
tions. 

virfar  attu  vi(5a  hvar  Men  might  there  far  and  wide 

veiSiskapar  at   leita   I'ar.  Seek  for  hunting. 

298 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

Skeggi  enn  pruf5i  skip  sitt  bjo,  Skegge  the  Stately  fitted  out  his  ship, 

skutunni  rendi  norSr  um  sjo,  With  his  vessel  he  sailed  north  in  the  sea, 

holdum  ekki  hafit  vannst,  By  the  men  the  sea  was  not  conquered, 

hvarf i  burtu,  en  aldri  fannst."  ^  They  were  lost,  and  never  found." 

It  appears  from  Hakon  Hakonsson's  Saga  that  the  NortJr- 
setur  were  a  well-known  part  of  Greenland;  for  we  read  of  the 
submission  of  the  Greenlanders  to  the  Norwegian  Crown  that 
they  promised 

"  to  pay  the  king  fines  for  all  manslaughter,  whether  of  Norsemen  or  Green- 
landers,  and  whether  they  were  killed  in  the  settlements  or  in  NorSrsetur,  and 
in  all  the  districts  to  the  north  under  the  star  [i.e.,  the  pole-star],  the  king 
should  have  his  weregild  "  [Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  p.  779]. 

In  Bjom  Jonsson's  "  Gronlands  Annaler  "  (cf.  above,  p.  263) 
these  expeditions  to  the  NorSrsetur  are  mentioned  in  more  de- 
tail, as  well  as  a  remarkable  voyage  to  the  north  in  1267  [Gronl. 
hist.  Mind.,  iii.  pp.  238,  f.].     We  there  read: 

"  All  the  great  franklins  of  Greenland  had  large  ships  and  vessels  built  to 
send  to  the  'NorSrsetur'  for  seal  hunting,  with  all  kinds  of  sealing  gear 
[veiSiskap]  and  cut-up  wood  [telgSum  viSum] ;  and  sometimes  they  them- 
selves accompanied  the  expeditions — as  is  related  at  length  in  the  tales,  both 
in  the  Skald-Helga  Saga  and  in  that  of  Thordis;  there  most  of  what  they  took 
was  seal-oil,  for  all  seal  hunting  was  better  there  than  at  home  in  the  settle- 
ments; melted  seal-fat  was  poured  into  sacks  of  hide  [literally,  boats  of  hide], 
and  hung  up  against  the  wind  on  boards,  till  it  thickened,  then  it  was  pre- 
pared as  it  should  be.  The  NorPrsetu-men  had  their  booths  or  houses 
[skala]  both  in  Greipar  and  in  Kroksfjarf^arheiSr  [Kroksfjords-heath].  Drift- 
wood is  found  there,  but  no  growing  trees.  This  northern  end  of  Greenland 
is  most  liable  to  take  up  all  the  wood  and  other  drift  that  comes  from  the 
bays  of  Markland.    .    .    ." 

In  an  extract  which  follows :  "  On  the  voyage  northward  to 
the  uninhabited  regions  "  (probably  from  a  different  and  later 
source)  we  read: 

"The  Greenlanders  are  constantly  obliged  to  make  voyages  to  the  unin- 
habited regions  in  the  northern  land's  end,  or  point,  both  for  the  sake  of  wood 
[i.e.,  driftwood]  and  sealing;  it  is  called  Greipar  and  KroksfjarSarheiSr;  it  is  a 

^  See  also  the  5th  and  6th  cantos  of  the  same  poem,  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iu 
pp.  522,  f.,  for  the  voyage  to  Greipar  and  its  being  the  resort  of  outlaws. 

299 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

great  and  long  sea  voyage  thither;"  i  as  the  Skald-Helga  Saga  clearly  bears 
witness,  where  it  is  said  of  it: 

'  Garpar  kvomu  i  Greypar  norfr.        ['The  men  came  to  Greipar  in  the  north, 
Gronlands     er     J'ar     bryggju  There  is  the  bridge-spur  (end)  of  Green- 
sporSr.'  2  land.'] 

"  Sometimes  this  sealing  season  [verti?5]  of  theirs  in  Greipar  or  Kroks- 
fjarJarheiSr  is  called  NorSrseta." 

According  to  this  description  we  must  look  for  NorSrsetur, 
with  Greipar  and  KroksfjartSarheiSr  to  the  north  of  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  Western  Settlement,  which,  from 
other  descriptions,  must  have  been  at  Straumsfjord,  about 
66^°  N.  lat.  (see  map,  p.  266).  There  in  the  north,  then,  there 
was  said  to  be  driftwood,  and  plenty  of  seals.  The  latter 
circumstance  is  especially  suited  to  the  districts  about 
Holstensborg  and  northward  to  Egedes  Minde  (i.e.,  between 
66°  and  68>^°  N.  lat.),  and  further  to  Disco  Bay  and  Vaigat 
(see  map,  p.  259).  Besides  abundance  of  seals  there  was 
also  good  walrus  hunting,  and  this  was  valuable  on  account 
of  the  tusks  and  hide,  which  were  Greenland's  chief  articles 
of  export  [cf.,  for  instance,  "  The  King's  Mirror,"  above, 
p.  277].  There  was  also  narwhale,  the  tusk  or  spear  of  which 
was  even  more  valuable  than  walrus  tusks.  "  Greipar "  ^ 
may  have  been  near  Holstensborg,  about  67°  N.  lat.     "  Kroks- 

1  Captain  Isachsen  (1907)  has  attached  much  weight  to  this  expression 
(which  he  translates  from  "  Gronl.  hist.  Mind."  by  "  long  and  dangerous  sea 
route";  but  the  original  is  "mikit  og  langt  sjoleifi"),  in  order  to  prove  that 
the  Norf rsetur  must  lie  far  north.  But  it  is  seen  from  the  text  itself  that  this 
idea  of  a  long  sea  voyage  is  taken  from  the  Skald-Helga  lay  (where  also  sim- 
ilar expressions  are  used),  which  is  of  late  origin,  and  consequently  an  un- 
trustworthy base  for  such  conclusions.  Moreover,  according  to  the  lay  itself, 
Skald-Helge  belonged  probably  to  the  Eastern  Settlement,  and  thence  to 
Holstensborg,  67°   N.  lat.,  was  a  long  voyage. 

"  This  is  obviously  an  error  for  "  byg?ar  sporfir "  (end  of  the  inhabited 
country)  as  in  the  "Skald-Helga  Rimur"  (see  above,  p.  298). 

s  "  Greipar,"  plural  of  "  Greip,"  would  mean  literally  the  grip,  or  interval, 
between  the  fingers,  but  it  may  also  be  used  of  mountain  ravines.  The  name 
seems  to  point  to  a  particularly  rugged  or  fjord-indented  coast,  and  would  be 
appropriate  to  the  whole  country  north  of  Straumsfjord,  for  instance,  about 
Holstensborg,  in  about  67°. 
300 


VOYAGES   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

f jarSarheiSr "  may  have  been  at  Disco  Bay  or  Vaigat.^  It 
also  agrees  with  this  that  the  northern  point  of  Greenland 
("['essi  nortSskagi  Groenlands ")  was  in  NorSrsetur,  and  that 
"  Greipar  "  was  at  the  land's  end  ("  bygSar  sportSr  ")  of  Green- 
land. For  what  the  Greenlanders  generally  understood  by  Green- 
land was  the  Eastern  and  Western  Settlements,  and  the  broad 
extent  of  coast  lying  to  the  north  of  them,  which  was  not  cov- 
ered by  the  inland  ice,  and  which  reached  to  Disco  Bay.  It  was 
the  part  where  human  habitation  was  possible,  and  where  there 
was  no  inland  ice ;  it  was  therefore  natural  for  them  to  call  Grei- 
par the  northern  end  of  the  country. 

In  an  old  chorography,  copied  by  Bjorn  Jonsson  under  the  name  of  "  Gr9n- 
landiae  vetus  Chorographia  "  =  (in  his  "  Gronlands  Annaler"),  there  is  mention 
of  the  Western  Settlement  and  of  the  districts  to  the  north  of  it.  After  naming 
the  fjords  in  the  Eastern  Settlement  it  proceeds:  "Then  it  is  six  days'  row- 
ing, six  men  in  a  six-oared  boat,  to  the  Western  Settlement  [then  the  fjords 
are  enumerated],^  then  from  this  Western  Settlement  to  Lysefjord  it  is  six 
days'  rowing,  thence  six  days'  rowing  to  KarlsbuSir  [Karl's  booths],  then 
three  days'  rowing  to  Biarneyiar  [Bear  islands,  or  island],  twelve  days'  rowing 
around  .  .  .  ey,*  Eisunes,  ^danes  in  the  north.  Thus  it  is  reckoned  that  there 
are  190  dwellings  [estates]  in  the  Eastern  Settlement,  and  90  in  the  Western." 
This  description  is  ojj.ure  on  many  points.  From  other  ancient  authorities  it 
appears  that  Lysefjord  was  the  southernmost  fjord  in  the  Western  Settlement 
(now  Fiskerfjord),  [cf.  G.  Storm,  1887,  p.  35;  F.  Jonsson,  1899,  p.  315],  but 
how  in  that  case  there  could  be  six  days'  rowing  from  this  western  settlement 
to  Lysefjord  sems  incomprehensible.  It  might  be  supposed  that  it  is  the  dis- 
tance from  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Western  Settlement  that  is  intended, 
and  thus  the  passage  has  been  translated  in  "  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,"  iii.  p.  229; 


1 "  Kroksf  jarSarheiSr  "  would  literally  mean  the  flat,  waste  mountain  tract 
("heiSr")  by  the  crooked  fjord,  Kroksfjord.  The  latter  name  would  be  very 
appropriate  to  Disco  Bay  and  Vaigat.  The  flat  plateaux  of  basalt,  which  form 
Disco  on  one  side,  and  the  Nugsuak  Peninsula  on  the  other  side, of  Vaigat, 
might  be  called  "  heijr." 

2  Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  226;  F.  Jonsson,  1899,  p.  319. 

3  Perhaps  these  names  of  fjords  were  so  indistinct  in  the  original  MS.  that 
Bjorn  Jonsson  could  not  read  them,  and  therefore  inserted  these  words  [cf. 
Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  233]. 

-^The  name  of  this  island  is  left  blank,  and  was  doubtless  illegible  in  the 
originaL 

301 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

but  then  it  is  strange  that  in  the  original  MS.  the  fjords  of  the  settlement 
should  have  been  enumerated  before  the  distance  to  the  first  fjord  was  given. 
If  this,  however,  be  correct,  it  would  then  have  been  twelve  days'  rowing  from 
the  northernmost  fjord  in  the  Eastern  Settlement  to  Lysefjord  in  the  Western. 
This  might  perhaps  agree  with  Ivar  Bardsson's  description  of  Greenland, 
where  it  is  stated  that  "  from  the  Eastern  Settlement  to  the  Western  Settle- 
ment is  twelve  sea  leagues,  and  all  uninhabited."  These  twelve  sea  leagues 
may  be  the  above-mentioned  twelve  days'  rowing,  repeated  in  this  form.  It 
was  a  good  two  hundred  nautical  miles  (forty  ancient  sea  leagues)  from  the 
northernmost  fjord  of  the  Eastern  Settlement  to  the  interior  of  Lysefjord. 
With  twelve  days'  rowing,  this  would  be  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  miles  a  day; 
but  if  we  allow  for  their  keeping  the  winding  course  inside  the  islands,  it  will 
be  considerably  longer.  If  we  put  a  day's  rowing  from  Lysefjord  northward 
at,  say,  twenty  nautical  miles,  then  "Karlsbufir"  would  lie  in  about  65°,  and 
"  Biarneyiar "  in  about  66°;  but  there  is  then  a  difficulty  about  this  island, 
together  with  Eisunes  and  ^danes,  which  it  is  said  to  have  taken  twelve  days 
to  row  round.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  good  two  hundred  miles  round  Disco 
Island,  so  that  this  might  correspond  to  twelve  days'  rowing  at  eighteen  miles 
a  day.  And  if  this  island  is  intended,  then  either  the  number  of  days'  rowing 
northward  along  the  coast  must  be  increased,  or  the  starting-point  was  not  the 
Lysefjord  (Fiskerfjord)  that  lay  on  the  extreme  south  of  the  Western  Settle- 
ment. But  the  description  is  altogether  too  uncertain  to  admit  of  any  definite 
conclusion.  It  is  not  mentioned  whether  the  northern  localities,  KarlsbuSir 
and  farther  north,  were  included  in  NorSrsetur,  but  it  seems  probable  that 
they  were. 

In  this  connection  the  statement  in  Ivar  Bardsson's  descrip- 
tion must  also  be  borne  in  mind : 

"  Item,  there  lies  in  the  north,  farther  from  the  Western  Settlement,  a 
great  mountain  that  is  called  Himinrafzfjall,'  and  farther  than  to  this  moun- 
tain must  no  man  sail,  if  he  would  preserve  his  life  from  the  many  whirlpools 
which  there  lie  round  all  the  ocean." 

It  is  true  that  Ivar's  description  as  a  whole  does  not  seem  to 
be  very  trustworthy  as  regards  details,  nor  do  the  whirlpools 
here  spoken  of  tend  to  inspire  confidence,  suggesting,  as  they  do, 

^  So  the  mountain  is  called  in  an  Icelandic  translation,  and  this  form  may 
be  nearest  to  the  name  in  the  original  Norwegian  text.  In  the  various  Danish 
MSS.  the  mountain  is  called  "  Hemeuell  Radszfielt "  (oldest  MS.),  "  Ham- 
melrads  Fjeld,"  "  Himmelradsfjeld,"  etc.  In  a  MS.  which  is  otherwise  consid- 
ered trustworthy,  it  is  called  "  Hemelrachs  Fjeld,"  and  this  has  been  fre- 
quently supposed  to  mean  the  heaven-reaching  mountain  [cf.  Gronl.  hist. 
Mind.,  iii.  p.  259].  As  will  be  mentioned  later,  the  real  name  of  the  mountain 
was  possibly  "  HiminrotN "  (flushing  of  the  sky),  or  perhaps  "HiminrgS" 
(wall  of  heaven,  i.e.,  wall  reaching  towards  heaven). 
302 


VOYAGES   IN  TI^E   MIDDLE  AGES 

that  it  was  near  the  earth's  limit,  where  the  ocean  ends  in  one  or 
more  vast  abysses ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  possible  that  the  moun- 
tain in  question  may  have  been  an  actual  landmark  in  the  extreme 
north,  on  that  part  of  the  west  coast  of  Greenland  to  which  voy- 
ages were  habitually  made,  and  in  that  case  it  must  have  been 
situated  in  "  NorSrsetur." 

Mention  may  also  be  made  of  a  puzzling  scholium  to  Adam  of  Bremen's 
work  [cf.  Lappenberg,  1838,  pp.  851,  f.] ;  it  was  added  at  a  late  period,  ostensi- 
bly from  "  Danish  fragments,"  but  the  form  of  the  names  betrays  a  Norse 
origin,  and  we  must  suppose  that  it  is  derived  from  ancient  Norwegian  or  Ice- 
landic sources.     The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  Latin  text: 

"  From  Norway  to  Iceland  is  fourteen  dozen  leagues  [duodene  leucarum] 
across  the  sea  (or  XIII.  dozen  sea-leagues,  that  is,  168  leagues). 1  From  Ice- 
land as  far  as  the  green  land  [terram  viridem]  Gronlandt  is  about  fourteen 
dozen  [duodenae].  There  is  a  promontory  and  it  is  called  '  Huerff '  [i.e., 
'  Hvarf  '],  and  there  snow  lies  continually,  and  it  is  called  '  Hwideserck.'  From 
'  Hwideserck '  as  far  as  *  Sunderbondt '  is  ten  dozen  leagues  [duodenae  leu- 
carum] ;  from  '  Sunderbondt '  as  far  as  '  Norderbondt '  is  eleven  dozen  leagues 
[d.  1.].  From  'Norderbondt'  to  'Hunenrioth'  is  seventeen  dozen  leagues,  and 
here  men  resort  in  order  to  kill  white  bears  and  '  Tauwallen '  "  ("  tandhvaler  " 
(?) — "tusk-whales" — i.e.,  walrus  and  narwhale?).^ 

This  passage  is  difficult  to  understand.  "  Sunderbondt "  and  "  Norder- 
bondt "  are  probably  to  be  regarded  as  translations  of  the  Norwegian  "  Syd- 
botten "  and  "  Nord-botten."  The  latter  might  be  the  Polar  Sea,  or  "  Hafs- 
botn,"  north  of  Iceland  and  Norway;  on  Claudius  Clavus's  map  this  is  called 
"  Nordhindh  Bondh "  (Nancy  map)  and  "  Nordenbodhn "  (Vienna  text).' 
But  in  that  case  we  should  have  to  suppose  that  the  distances  referred  to  a 
voyage  from  Norway  to  Iceland,  from  thence  to  Hvarf  and  Hvitserk,  and 
then  back  again  northward  along  the  east  coast  of  Greenland.  It  seems  more 
probable  that  the  direction  of  the  voyage  was  supposed  to  be  continued  round 
Hvarf  and  up  along  the  west  coast;  but  where  "Sunderbondt"  and  "Norder- 
bondt" are  to  be  looked  for  on  that  coast  is  difficult  to  say;  the  names  would 

1  The  words  in  parenthesis  are  in  German,  and  are  certainly  an  explanation 
added  later.     XIII.  is  evidently  an  error  for  XIIII. 

-It  is  also  possible  that  it  means  whales  from  which  "tauer"  or  ropes  are 
obtained,  i.e.,  the  walrus;  the  ropes  of  walrus  hide  being  so  very  valuable. 

3  One  might  then  suppose  that  "  Hunenrioth "  was  connected  with  the 
Norwegian  word  "  hun  "  for  a  giant  (sometimes  used  in  our  day  for  the  Evil 
One).  The  name  might  then  be  applied  to  the  mythical  Risaland  or  Jotun- 
heim,  in  the  Polar  Sea,  north-east  of  Greenland;  but  it  would  then  be  difficult 
to  explain  the  meaning  of  the  latter  part  of  the  name,  "  -rioth." 


IN  NORTHERN  MISTS 

most  naturally  apply  to  two  fjords  or  bays,  and  in  some  way  or  other  these 
might  be  connected  with  the  Eastern  and  Western  Settlements;  "  Norder- 
bondt "  might,  for  instance,  have  come  to  mean  the  largest  fjord,  Godthaabs- 
fjord,  in  the  Western  Settlement.  Since  "  hun  "  in  Old  Norse  means  a  bear- 
cub  or  young  bear,  one  might  be  inclined  to  connect  "  Hunenrioth "  with 
"  Biarneyiar,"  where  perhaps  bears  were  hunted;  but  in  that  case  "-rioth" 
must  be  taken  to  be  the  Old  Norse  "hrjotr"  (growl,  roar),  which  would  be  an 
unlikely  name  for  islands  or  lands.  It  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it 
means  the  same  as  the  above-mentioned  mountain  "  HiminraS,"  from  Ivar 
Bardsson's  description.  It  might  then  be  probable  that  this  was  called  "  Him- 
inrof "  (i.e.,  flushing  of  the  sky,  sun-gold,  from  the  root-form  "  rioSa "),  a 
natural  name  for  a  high  mountain;  i  by  an  error  in  writing  or  reading  this 
might  easily  become  "  Hunenrioth,"  as  it  might  also  become  "  Himinraf5." 
Thus,  it  is  possibly  a  mountain  in  Norfrsetur  (see  above).  But,  in  any  case, 
the  distances  are  impossible  as  they  stand,  and  until  more  light  has  been 
thrown  upon  this  scholium,  we  cannot  attach  much  importance  to  it. 

For  many  reasons  it  is  unreasonable  to  look  for  "  Greipar  " 
and  "  KroksfjarSarheiSr "  so  far  north  as  Smith  Sound  or 
Jones  Sound  (or  Lancaster  Sound),  as,  amongst  others  in  re- 
cent times,  Professor  A.  Bugge  (1898)  and  Captain  G.  Isachsen 
(1907)  have  done: 

1  Professor  Moltke  Moe  has  suggested  to  me  this  explanation  of  the  name. 
One  might  also  suppose  it  to  mean  the  western  land  of  sunset,  that  is,  Amer- 
ica, but  it  would  be  unlike  the  Scandinavians  to  use  such  a  name  for  a  country. 
There  is  a  possibility  that  it  was  connected  with  "  rgS  "  (gen.  "  raSar,"  a  ridge 
of  land)  and  meant  the  ridge,  or  wall,  of  heaven,  i.e.,  reaching  toward  heaven. 
It  is,  perhaps,  less  probable  that  "  -rioth  "  or  "  -raf5  "  came  from  a  word  of  two 
syllables  like  "  ro5a  "  (a  rod,  later  a  cross,  Anglo-Saxon  "  rod,"  modem  Eng- 
lish "rood")  or  the  poetical  word  "rofi"  (wind,  storm).  In  O.  Rygh: 
"Norske  Gaardnavne,"  xvL  Nordlands  Amt  [ed.  K.  Rygh,  1905,  p.  334],  there 
is  the  name  of  an  estate  "  Himmelstein "  (in  Busknes),  which,  in  1567,  was 
written  "  Himmelstand,"  "  Himmelstaa  "  (from  1610  on  =  "  sten  ").  K.  Rygh 
remarks  of  this:  "Himmel  occurs  occasionally  in  names  of  mountains:  thus, 
a  little  farther  north  we  have  the  lofty  Himmeltinder  on  the  border  of  Busknes 
and  Borge.  One  is  disposed  to  regard  this  name  as  similar  to  the  Danish 
Himmelbjerg,  meaning  a  very  high  mountain.  .  .  ."  Prof.  Torp  has  men- 
tioned to  me  the  similarity  of  name  with  the  giant  Hymer's  ox  "  Himinhrjotr  " 
in  the  Snorra-Edda;  but  it  is  difficult  to  think  that  a  mountain  should  have 
been  called  after  the  proper  name  of  an  animal. 

"  Rafn,  in  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  pp.  881-885,  commits  the  absurdity  of  sepa- 
rating these  two  places  by  the  whole  of  Baffin  Bay,  in  spite  of  their  being  men- 
tioned together  in  the  old  accounts  under  the  common  designation  of  "  NorSr- 
setur."    He  puts  "Greipar"  in  about  67°  N.  lat.,  but  makes  "  Kroksf  jarSar- 

304 


VOYAGES    IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

(i)  In  the  first  place  this  would  assume  that  the  Green- 
landers  on  their  NorSrsetu  expeditions  sailed  right  across  the 
ice-blocked  and  difficult  Baffin  Bay  and  Melville  Bay  every 
summer,  and  back  again  in  the  autumn,  in  their  small, 
clinker-built  vessels,  w^hich  were  not  suited  for  sailing 
among  the  ice.  We  are  told,  indeed,  (see  above,  p.  299)  that 
the  franklins  had  large  ships  and  vessels  for  this  voyage; 
but  this  was  written  in  Iceland  by  men  who  were  not  them- 
selves acquainted  with  the  conditions  in  Greenland,  and  the 
statement  doubtless  means  no  more  than  that  these  vessels, 
or  rather  boats,  were  large  in  comparison  to  the  small  boats 
(perhaps  for  the  most  part  boats  of  hides)  which  they  usually 
employed  in  their  home  fisheries.  Timber  for  shipbuilding 
was  not  easy  to  obtain  in  Greenland.  Driftwood  would 
not  go  very  far  in  building  boats,  to  say  nothing  of  larger 
vessels,  and  they  must  have  depended  on  an  occasional 
cargo  of  timber  from  Norway,  or  perhaps  what  they  could 
themselves  fetch  from  Markland.  They  could  hardly  have  got 
the  material  for  building  vessels  suited  for  sailing  through  the 
ice  of  Baffin  Bay  in  this  way.  Moreover,  we  know  from 
several  sources  that  there  was  great  scarcity  of  rivets  and 
iron  nails  in  Greenland;  so  that  vessels  were  largely  built 
with  wooden  nails.  In  1189,  a  Greenlander,  Asmund 
Kastanrasti,  came  with  twelve  others  from  Kross-eyjar  in 
Greenland  to  Iceland  "  in  a  ship  that  was  fastened  together 
with  wooden  nails  alone,  save  that  it  was  also  bound  with 
thongs.  .  .  .  He  had  also  been  in  FinnsbuSir."  He  did 
not  sail  from  Iceland  till  the  following  year,  and  was  then 
shipwrecked.'  This  ship  must  have  been  one  of  the  largest 
and  best  they  had  in  Greenland.     It  is  therefore  impossible  that 

heii5r"  into  Lancaster  Sound,  74°  N.  lat.,  on  the  other  side  of  the  ice-blocked 
Baffin  Bay. 

1  Cf.  Islandske  Annaler,  ed.  Storm,  p.  120,  etc.;  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  ii.  pp. 
754,  762.  As  is  pointed  out  by  Finnur  Jonsson  [1893,  p.  539],  most  of  the 
coffins  found  in  graves  in  Greenland  are  fastened  together  with  wooden  nails. 
We  are  also  told  how  all  the  iron  spikes  and  nails  were  carefully  taken  out  of 
a  stranded  Norwegian  ship  (about  1129). 

305 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

they  should  have  been  able  to  keep  up  any  constant  com- 
munication with  the  countries  on  the  north  side  of  Baf- 
fin Bay. 

(2)  Then  comes  the  question:  what  reason  would  they 
have  had  for  exposing  themselves  to  the  many  dangers  involved 
in  the  long  northward  voyage  through  the  ice?  Their  purpose 
may  have  been  chiefly  to  kill  seals  and  collect  driftwood.  But 
where  there  is  much  ice  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  the 
driftwood  is  prevented  from  being  thrown  up  on  shore;  and  it 
is  the  fact  that  in  Baffin  Bay  there  is  unusually  little  of  it,  so 
that  the  Eskimo  of  Cape  York  and  Smith  Sound  are  barely 
able  to  get  enough  wood  for  making  weapons  and  implements. 
In  addition  to  the  ice  the  reason  for  this  is  that  no  current  of 
importance  bearing  driftwood  reaches  the  north  of  Baf- 
fin Bay.  Consequently,  this  again  is  conclusive  proof  that 
the  NorSrsetur  of  the  descriptions  is  not  to  be  looked  for 
there,  nor  was  sealing  particularly  good;  they  had  better  seal- 
ing-grounds  in  the  districts  about  Holstensborg,  Egedes  Minde, 
and  Disco  Bay.^ 

Everything  points  to  the  NorSrsetur  having  been  situated 
in  the  districts  either  in  or  to  the  south  of  Disco  Bay,^  which 

^  Since  this  chapter  was  written  a  few  years  ago,  an  excellent  treatise  by 
O.  Solberg  on  the  Greenland  Eskimo  in  prehistoric  times  has  appeared  (1907). 
The  author  has  here  reached  conclusions  similar  to  the  above  as  regards  the 
northward  extension  of  the  Norfrsetu-voyages;  but  he  proposes  to  place 
Kroksfjord  south  of  Disco  Bay,  since  he  does  not  think  the  Greenlanders  came 
across  the  Eskimo  who  lived  there.  I  do  not  consider  this  view  justified;  on 
the  contrary,  it  seems  to  me  probable  (as  will  be  mentioned  later)  that  the 
Greenlanders  had  intercourse  with  the  Eskimo. 

-  Otto  Sverdrup  found  on  two  small  islands  in  Jones  Sound  several  groups 
of  three  stones,  evidently  set  up  by  human  hands  as  shelters  for  sitting  eider- 
ducks,  similar  to  those  with  which  he  was  acquainted  in  the  north  of  Norway. 
Whether  these  stone  shelters  were  very  ancient  could  not  be  determined. 
Captain  Isachsen  (1907)  thinks  they  may  be  due  to  the  ancient  Scandinavians 
of  the  Greenland  settlements,  and  sees  in  them  possible  evidence  of  Jones 
Sound  having  been  Kroksfjord.  But  too  much  importance  must  not  be  at- 
tached to  this:  no  other  sign  of  Europeans  having  stayed  in  Jones  Sound  was 
discovered,  whereas  there  were  many  signs  of  Eskimo.  Unless  we  are  to  be- 
lieve that  the  latter  set  up  the  stones  for  some  purpose  or  other,  it  is  just  as 

306 


VOYAGES  IN  THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

must  have  been  a  natural  hunting-ground  for  the  Green- 
landers,  just  as  the  Norwegians  sail  long  distances  to  Lofoten 
for  fishing.  Moreover,  one  of  the  objects  of  the  voyages  to 
NorSrsetur  was  to  collect  driftwood;  now  the  driftwood 
comes  with  the  Polar  Current  round  Cape  Farewell  and  is 
thrown  up  on  shore  along  the  whole  of  the  west  coast  north- 
ward as  far  as  this  current  washes  the  land — that  is  to  say, 
about  as  far  north  as  Disco  Bay.  In  the  south  of  Greenland, 
the  ancient  Eastern  Settlement,  there  is  drift-ice  for  part  of 
the  year,  and  not  so  much  driftwood  comes  ashore  as  farther 
north,  in  the  ancient  Western  Set- 
tlement (especially  the  Godthaab 
district)  and  to  the  north  of  it.  Be- 
sides, in  the  settlements  there  were 
many  to  find  it  and  utilize  it,  while 
in  the  uninhabited  regions  there 
were  only  the  Eskimo,  of  whom,  per- 
haps, there  were  as  yet  few  south 
of  68°  N.  lat.  On  their  way  to  and 
from  the  NorSrsetur,  therefore,  the 

Greenlanders     traveled     along     the 

u  J        11     i    J    J   -f^  1       1  Driftwood    [from  an   Ice- 

shore  and  collected  driftwood  wher-    ,     ,.    .,„    .,       ,,  , 

landic  MS.,  fifteenth  century] 

ever  they  found  it.     In  Iceland  this 

was  misunderstood  in  the  sense  that  driftwood  was  sup- 
posed to  be  washed  ashore  chiefly  in  Nor?5rsetur;  and  they  be- 
lieved it  to  come  from  Markland,  perhaps  because  the  Green- 
landers  sometimes  went  there  for  timber,  and  it  was  thus  re- 
garded by  them  as  a  country  rich  in  trees.  It  is,  however,  also 
possible  that  the  name  Markland  (i.e.,  woodland)  itself  may  have 
created  this  conception.  In  reality,  most  of  the  driftwood  comes 
from  Siberia,  which  was  unknown  to  them,  and  it  is  brought 
with  the  drift-ice  over  the  Polar  Sea  and  southward  along  the 
east  coast  of  Greenland. 

The  following  is  the  account  of  the  voyage  of  about  1267, 

likely  that  they  may  have  been  placed  there  by  chance  hunters  in  recent  times, 
as  that  they  were  due  to  the  ancient  Norsemen. 


IN  NORTHERN   MISTS 

given  by  Bjorn  Jonsson  (taken,  according  to  his  statement,  from 
the  Hauksbok,  where  it  is  no  longer  to  be  found)  : 

"  That  summer  [i.e.,  1266]  when  Arnold  the  priest  went  from  Greenland, 
and  they  were  stranded  in  Iceland  at  Hitarnes,  pieces  of  wood  were 
found  out  at  sea,  which  had  been  cut  with  hatchets  and  adzes  [^exlum]  and 
among  them  one  in  which  wedges  of  tusk  and  bone  were  imbedded.^  The 
same  summer  men  came  from  NorSrsetur,  who  had  gone  farther  north  than 
had  been  heard  of  before.  They  saw  no  dwelHng-places  of  SkraeHngs,  except 
in  Kroksf jarSarheiSr  and  therefore  it  is  thought  that  they  [i.e.,  the  Skraelings] 
must  there  have  the  shortest  way  to  travel,  wherever  they  come  from.  .  .  . 
After  this  [the  following  year?]  the  priests  sent  a  ship  northward  to  find  out 
what  the  country  was  like  to  the  north  of  the  farthest  point  they  had  pre- 
viously reached;  and  they  sailed  out  from  Kroksf jarCarheiSr,  until  the  land 
sank  below  the  horizon  [laegSi].  After  this  they  met  with  a  southerly  gale 
and  thick  weather  [myrkri],  and  they  had  to  stand  off  [i.e.,  to  the  north]. 
But  when  the  storm  passed  over  [i  rauf]  and  it  cleared  [lysti],  they  saw 
many  islands  and  all  kinds  of  game,  both  seals  and  whales  [i.e.,  walrus?],  and 
a  great  number  of  bears.  They  came  right  into  the  gulf  [i.e.,  Baffin  Bay] 
and  all  the  land  [i.e.,  all  the  land  not  covered  by  ice]  then  sank  below  the 
horizon,  the  land  on  the  south  and  the  glaciers  [jgkla] ;  but  there  was  also 
glacier  [jpkuU]  to  the  south  of  them  as  far  as  they  could  see;-  they  found 
there  some  ancient  dwelling-places  of  Skraslings  [' Skraelingjavistirfornligar'], 
but  they  could  not  land  on  account  of  the  bears.  Then  they  went  back  for 
three  '  doegr,'  and  they  found  there  some  dwelling-places  of  Skraelings  [nok- 
kra  Skraelingja  vistir]  when  they  landed  on  some  islands  south  of  Snaefell. 
Then  they  went  south  to  KroksfjarfiarheiSr,  one  long  day's  rowing,  on  St. 
James's  day  [July  25] ;  it  was  then  freezing  there  at  night,  but  the  sun  shone 

1  As  these  pieces  of  driftwood  must  have  been  carried  by  the  East  Green- 
land Polar  Current,  this  seems  to  show  that  there  were  already  Eskimo  on  the 
east  coast  of  Greenland  at  that  time.  As  they  are  spoken  of  as  something  re- 
markable, the  pieces,  with  wedges  of  tusk  and  bone,  cannot  have  been  due  to 
Norsemen,  either  in  Greenland  or  Iceland.  Their  being  shaped  with 
"  hatchets  "  or  "  adzes  "  (i.e.,  Eskimo  tools)  was  looked  upon  as  strange. 

-  This  passage  seems  obscure,  and  there  may  be  some  error  or  misunder- 
standing on  the  part  of  the  various  copyists.  But  as  it  now  stands,  it 
may  be  best  taken  to  mean  that  all  known  land  and  all  the  known  glaciers 
had  disappeared  beneath  the  horizon;  but  that  the  "  jpkull"  (i.e.,  snow-field  or 
inland  ice)  which  they  saw  to  landward  extended  southward  along  the  coast 
as  far  as  they  could  see.  The  expression  "  to  the  south  of  them  "  is  not,  of 
course,  to  be  interpreted  as  meaning  due  south  of  the  spot  where  they  were, 
but  rather  as  southward  along  the  coast,  from  the  part  off  which  they  lay; 
this  is  confirmed  by  the  addition  "  as  far  as  they  could  see,"  which  can  only 
refer  to  a  coast  along  which  they  were  looking  southward. 

308 


VOYAGES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

both  night  and  day,  and,  when  it  was  in  the  south,  was  only  so  high  that  if  a 
man  lay  athwartships  in  a  six-oared  boat,  the  shadow  of  the  gunwale  near- 
est the  sun  fell  upon  his  face;  but  at  midnight  it  was  as  high  as  it  is  at  home  in 
the  settlement  when  it  is  in  the  north-west.  Then  they  returned  home  to  Gar- 
dar"  (in  the  Eastern  Settlement). 

Bjorn  Jonsson  says  that  this  account  of  the  voyage  was 
written  by  Halldor,  a  priest  of  Greenland  (who  did  not  himself 
take  part  in  the  expedition,  but  had  only  heard  of  it)  to 
Arnold,  the  priest  of  Greenland  who  was  stranded  in  Iceland 
in  1266.  It  was  then  rewritten  in  Iceland  (or  Norway?), 
perhaps  by  one  of  the  copyists  of  the  Hauksbok,  who  was 
unacquainted  with  the  conditions  in  Greenland;  and  after- 
wards it  was  again  copied,  and  perhaps  "  improved,"  at  least 
once  (by  Bjdrn  Jonsson  himself).  Unfortunately,  the  leaves 
of  the  Hauksbok  which  must  have  contained  this  narrative 
have  been  lost.  There  is  therefore  a  possibility  that  errors 
and  misunderstandings  may  have  crept  in,  and  such  an 
absurdity  as  that  "  they  could  not  land  on  account  of  the 
bears "  (though  they  nevertheless  saw  ancient  Eskimo 
dwellings!)  shows  clearly  enough  that  the  narrative  is  not 
to  be  regarded  as  trustworthy  in  its  details;  but  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  voyage  was  really  made,  and  it  must 
have  extended  far  north  in  Baffin  Bay.  It  cannot  have 
taken  place  in  the  same  year  (1266)  in  which  the  men 
spoken  of  came  from  NortSrsetur,  but  at  the  earliest  in  the 
following  year  (1267). 

We  may  probably  regard  as  one  of  the  objects  of  the 
expedition  the  investigation  of  the  northward  extension  of 
the  Eskimo.  The  voyagers  sailed  out  through  Vaigat 
(Kroksfjord),  in  about  70^°  N.  lat. ;  they  met  with  a  southerly 
gale  and  thick  weather,  and  were  obliged  to  keep  along  the 
coast;  the  south  wind,  which  follows  the  line  of  the  coast, 
also  swept  the  ice  northward,  and  in  open  sea  they  came  far 
north  in  the  Polar  Sea;  but,  if  the  statements  are  exact,  they 
cannot  have  gone  farther  than  a  point  from  which  they  were 
able    to    return    to    KroksfjartSarheiSr    in    four    days'    sailing 

309 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

and  rowing.'  If  we  allow  at  the  outside  that  in  the  three 
days  they  sailed  on  an  average  one  degree,  or  sixty  nautical 
miles,  a  day,  which  is  a  good  deal  along  a  coast,  and  if  we 
put  a  good  day's  rowing  at  forty  miles,  we  shall  get  a  total 
of  220  miles;  or,  if  they  started  from  the  northern  end  of 
Vaigat,  in  70^°,  they  may  have  been  as  far  north  as  74"^  N. 
lat.,  or  about  Melville  Bay.  In  any  case,  there  can  be  no 
question  of  their  having  been  much  farther  north.  Here  the 
land  is  low,  and  the  inland  ice  (jgkull)  comes  right  down 
to  the  sea,  with  bare  islands  outside  (see  map,  p.  259).  Here 
they  found  old  traces  of  Eskimo.  Then  they  returned  south 
to  Vaigat,  but  on  the  way  thither  they  found  Eskimo  dwellings 
(that  is,  in  this  case  tents)  on  some  islands  at  which  they 
put  in.-  It  may  be  objected  to  this  explanation  that  it  does 
not  agree  with  the  statement  as  to  the  sun's  altitude.  But 
here  there  must  be  a  misunderstanding  or  obscurity  in  the 
transmission  of  the  text.  KroksfjarSarheiSr  is  always  men- 
tioned elsewhere  as  a  particularly  well-known  place  in 
NorSrsetur,  to  which  the  Greenlanders  resorted  every  summer 
for  seal  hunting,  and  it  is  far  from  likely  that  the  statements 
as  to  the  midnight  sun  being  visible,  as  to  the  frosts  at 
night,  and  the  detailed  information  as  to  the  sun's  altitude, 
(in  a  description  otherwise  so  concise)  referred  to  so  generally 
familiar  a  part  of  the  country.  It  is  obvious  that  it  must 
refer  to  the  unknown  regions,  where  they  were  farthest 
north;  but  we  thus  lose  the  information  as  to  the  date  on 
which  the  sun's  altitude  was  observed ;  it  must,  in  any  case, 
have  been  four  days  before  St.  James's  day,  and  it  may  have 

'The  text  has  three  "doegr"  (and  one  long  day's  rowing),  that  is  three 
times  twelve  hours;  but  in  this  case  it  seems  most  natural  to  suppose  that  days 
are  meant,  and  that  they  put  in  to  shore  at  night. 

-The  text  says  that  these  islands  were  to  the  south  of  Snasfell;  but  where 
this  was  we  do  not  know.  In  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  we  read  that  in  the 
third  summer  Eric  (see  above,  p.  267)  "  went  as  far  north  as  Snaefell  and 
into  Hrafnsfjord."  Whether  this  was  the  same  Snaefell  is  uncertain,  but 
quite  possible;  whilst  Hrafnsfjord  (Ravnsfjord)  is  most  probably  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  Hrafnsfjord  that  lay  in  the  Eastern  Settlement,  near  Hvarf. 
310 


VOYAGES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

been  more.  Moreover,  the  information  given  is  of  no  use  for 
working  out  the  latitude.  The  measurement  of  the  shadow 
on  a  man  lying  athwartships  does  not  help  us  much,  as  the 
height  of  the  gunwale  above  the  man's  position  is  not  given. 
The  statement  as  to  the  sun's  altitude  at  midnight  might  be 
of  more  value ;  but  whether  "  at  home  in  the  settlement " 
means  the  Western  Settlement,  or  whether  it  does  not  rather 
mean  Gardar  (in  the  Eastern  Settlement)  to  which  they 
"  returned  home,"  we  do  not  now  know  for  certain,  nor  do 
we  know  on  what  day  it  was  that  the  sun  was  at  an  equal 
altitude  in  the  north-west.  If  St.  James's  day  (July  25)  is 
meant,  then  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  sun  would  not  be 
visible  above  the  horizon  at  Gardar  when  it  was  in  the  north- 
west. According  to  the  Julian  Calendar,  which  was  then  in 
use,  July  25  fell  seven  or  eight  days  later  than  now.  If 
Midsummer  Day  is  intended,  of  which,  however,  there  is 
no  mention  in  the  text,  then  the  sun  would  be  about  3°  41' 
above  the  horizon  in  the  north-west  at  Gardar.  If  it  is 
meant  that  on  July  20  the  sun  was  at  this  altitude,  then  the 
latitude  would  be  74°  34'  N.  [cf.  H.  Geelmuyden,  1883, 
p.  178].  But  all  this  is  uncertain.  We  only  know  that  the 
travelers  saw  the  sun  above  the  horizon  at  midnight.  If  we 
suppose  that  at  least  the  whole  of  the  sun's  disc  was  above 
the  horizon,  and  that  it  was  St.  James's  day,  then  they  must 
at  any  rate  have  been  north  of  71°  48'  N.  lat.  (as  the  sun's 
declination  was  about  17°  54'  on  July  25  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury).' If  the  date  was  earlier,  then  they  may  have  been  far- 
ther south. 

1  Cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  iii.  p.  885. 


3" 


[From  an  Icelandic  MS.  fourteenth  century] 

CHAPTER   IX 

WINELAND  THE  GOOD,  THE  FORTUNATE  ISLES, 
AND  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 

ICELANDIC  literature  contains  many  remarkable  state- 
ments about  countries  to  the  south-west  or  south  of 
the  Greenland  settlements.  They  are  called  :  "  Helluland " 
(i.e.,  slate-  or  stone-land),  "  Markland "  (i.e.,  woodland), 
"  FurcSustrandir  "  (i.e.,  marvel-strands),  and  "  Vinland  "  (also 
written  "  Vindland "  or  "Vinland").  Yet  another,  which 
lay  to  the  west  o£  Ireland,  was  called  "  Hvitramanna-land " 
(i.e.,  the  white  men's  land).  Even  if  certain  of  these  countries 
are  legendary,  as  will  presently  be  shown,  it  must  be  regarded 
as  a  fact  that,  in  any  case,  the  Greenlanders  and  Icelanders 
reached  some  of  them,  which  lay  on  the  north-eastern  coast, 
of  America;  and  they  thus  discovered  the  continent  of  North 
America,  besides  Greenland,  about  five  hundred  years  before 
Cabot  (and  Columbus). 

While  Helluland,  Markland,  and  FurSustrandir  are  first 
mentioned  in  authorities  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Vin- 
land occurs  already  in  Adam  of  Bremen,  about  1070  (see 
above,  pp.  195  f.).  Afterwards  the  name  occurs  in. 
Icelandic  literature:  first  in  Are  Frode's  Islendingabok, 
about  1 130,  where  we  are  only  told  that  in  Greenland  traces 
were  found  of  the  same  kind  of  people  as  "inhabited 
Wineland "  ("Vinland  hefer  bygt";  see  above,  p.  260); 
it  is  next  mentioned  together  with  Hvitramanna-land  in  the 
312 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Landnamabok,  where  it  may  have  been  taken  from 
Are  Frode,  as  the  latter's  uncle,  Thorkel  Gellisson,  is  given 
as  the  authority.  It  has  been  thought  that  the  original 
statement  was  contained  in  a  lost  work  of  Are's;  in  any 
case  it  must  belong  to  the  period  before  his  death  in  1148. 
We  are  only  told  that  Hvitramanna-land  lay  to  the  west 
in  the  ocean  near  Vin(d)land;  but  the  passage  is  important, 
because,  as  will  be  discussed  later,  it  clearly  shows  that  the 
statements  about  Wineland  in  the  oldest  Icelandic  authorities 
were  derived  from  Ireland.  The  next  mention  of  Wineland 
is  in  "  Kristni-saga "  (before  1245)  and  "  Heimskringla," 
where  it  is  only  said  that  Leif  the  Lucky  found  Wineland 
the  Good.  It  should  be  remarked  that,  while  thus  in  the 
oldest  authorities  Wineland  is  only  mentioned  casually  and 
in  passing,  it  is  not  until  we  come  to  the  Saga  of  Eric  the 
Red,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  Flateyjarbok's  "  Gron- 
lendinga-f'attr,"  of  the  fourteenth,  that  we  find  any  description 
of  the  country,  and  of  voyages  to  it  and  to  Helluland  and  Mark- 
land.  But  two  verses,  reproduced  in  the  first  of  these 
sagas,  are  certainly  considerably  older  than  the  saga 
itself;  and  they  speak  of  the  country  where  there  was  wine 
to  drink  instead  of  water,  and  of  FurSustrandir  where  they  boil 
whales'  flesh. 

It  may  be  added  that  in  the  "  Eyrbyggja-saga  "  (of  about  1250)  it  is  said 
that  "  Snorre  went  with  Karlsevne  to  Wineland  the  Good,  and  when  they 
fought  with  the  Skraslings  there  in  Wineland,  Snorre's  son  Thorbrand  fell  in 
the  fight."  In  the  "  Grettis-saga "  (about  1290),  Thorhall  Gamlason,  one  of 
those  who  took  part  in  this  expedition,  is  called  "  Vindlendingr  "  or  "  ViSlend- 
ingr"  (which  should  doubtless  be  "  Vinlendingr  "  in  each  case).  If  we  add  to 
this  that  in  the  Icelandic  geography  which  is  known  from  various  MSS.  of 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  but  which  is  attributed  in  part  (al- 
though hardly  the  section  about  Greenland,  Wineland,  etc.)  to  Abbot  Nikulas 
Bergsson  of  Thvera  (ob.  1159),  Helluland,  Markland,  and  Vinland  are  men- 
tioned as  lying  to  the  south  of  Greenland  (see  later),  then  we  shall  have  given 
all  the  certain  ancient  authorities  in  which  Wineland  occurs  [cf.  G.  Storm,  1887, 
pp.  10  f.] ;  but  possibly  the  runic  stone  from  Ringerike  is  to  be  added  (see  later). 

Before    I    recapitulate    the    most    important    features    of 
these  voyages,  as  they  are  described  more  particularly  in  the 

313 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  I  must  premise  that  I  look  upon  the 
narratives  somewhat  in  the  light  of  historical  romances, 
founded  upon  legend  and  more  or  less  uncertain  traditions. 
Gustav  Storm  in  his  critical  review  of  the  Wineland  voyages 
(1887)  has  separated  the  older  authorities,  which  he  regarded 
as  altogether  trustworthy,  from  the  later  narratives  in  the 
Flateyjarbok's  "  Gronlendinga-f'attr,"  which  he  thought  were 
to  be  rejected.  The  last  named  was  written  about  1387, 
while  Eric  the  Red's  Saga,  which  we  are  to  regard  as  trust- 
worthy, must,  according  to  Storm,  have  been  written  between 
1270  and  1300.'  The  accounts  of  the  discovery  of  Wineland 
and  of  the  voyages  thither  are  very  conflicting  in  these  two 
authorities;  while  the  latter  has  only  two  voyages  (after 
the  discovery),  the  former  has  divided  them  into  five;  while 
one  mentions  Leif  Ericson  as  the  discoverer  of  the  country, 
the  other  gives  Bjarne  Herjulfsson,  and  so  on.  We  are  led 
to  ask  whether  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  traditions 
should  have  been  handed  down  by  word  of  mouth  in  such 
a  remarkably  unaltered  and  uncorrupted  state  during  the 
first  250  or  300  years,  when  they  have  been  transformed  and 
confused  to  such  an  extent  scarcely  a  hundred  years  later. 
This  must  rather  prove  that  there  was  no  fixed  tradition, 
but  that  the  tales  became  split  up  into  more  and  more  varying 
forms.  Perhaps  it  will  be  answered  that  the  Saga  of  Eric 
the  Red  was  composed  in  the  golden  age  of  saga  writing, 
whereas  the  Flateyjarbok  belongs  to  the  period  of  decline.^ 
But  it  cannot  be  psychologically  probable  that  human  nature 
in  Iceland  should  suddenly  have  undergone  so  great  a  change, 
that  while  the  saga  tellers  of  the  fourteenth  century  were 
disposed  to  invent  romances,  they  should  not  have  had  any 
tendency    thereto    throughout    the    three    preceding    centuries, 

1  Finnur  Jonsson  [igoi,  ii.  p.  648]  thinks  it  was  written  about  1200. 

=  Gudbrand  Vigfusson  [1878,  i.  pp.  lix.  f.]  thinks  that  Eric  the  Red's  Saga 
and  the  Flateyjarbok's  "  Gronlendinga-Mttr "  are  derived,  in  complete  inde- 
pendence of  one  another,  from  oral  traditions,  which  were  different  in  the 
west,  at  Breidafjord,  where  the  former  was  written,  and  in  the  north,  from 
whence  the  latter  is  derived. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

It  is  particularly  natural  that  many  alterations  and  additions 
should  be  made  when,  as  here,  the  narratives  are  concerned 
with  distant  waters  which  lay  so  far  out  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  voyages,  and  which  for  a  long  time  had  ceased  to 
be  known  in  Iceland  when  the  sagas  were  put  into  writing. 
Features  belonging  to  the  description  of  other  quarters  of 
the  globe  were  also  inserted.  Tales  which  in  this  way  live 
in  oral  tradition  and  gradually  develop  into  sagas,  without 
any  written  word  to  support  them,  and  to  some  extent  even 
without  any  known  localities  to  which  they  can  be  attached, 
are  to  be  regarded  as  living  organisms  dependent  on  accidental 
influence,  which  absorb  into  themselves  any  suitable  material 
as  they  may  find  it;  a  resemblance  of  name  between  persons 
may  thus  contribute,  or  a  similarity  of  situations  or  events  which 
bear  the  same  foreign  stamp.  The  narratives  of  the  Wineland 
voyages  exhibit,  as  we  shall  see,  sure  traces  of  influences  of 
this  kind. 

In  the  year  999,  according  to  the  saga,  Leif,  the  son  of  Eric 
the  Red,  sailed  from  Greenland  to  Norway.  This  is  the  first 
time  we  hear  of  so  long  a  sea  voyage  being  attempted,^ 
and  it  shows  in  any  case  that  this  long  passage  was  not 
unknown  to  the  Icelanders  and  Norwegians.  Formerly  the 
passage  to  Greenland  had  been  by  way  of  Iceland,  thence 
to  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  southward  along  the  coast, 
and  round  Hvarf.  But  capable  seamen  like  the  intrepid  Leif 
thought  they  could  avoid  so  many  changes  of  course  and 
arrive  in  Norway  by  sailing  due  east  from  the  southern 
point  of  Greenland.  Thereby  Leif  Ericson  becomes  the  per- 
sonification of  the  first  ocean  voyager  in  history,  who  de- 
liberately and  with  a  settled  plan  steered  straight  across  the 
open    Atlantic,    without    seeking   to    avail    himself    of    harbors 

1  We  cannot  here  take  any  account  of  Rolf  Raudesand's  having  come  to 
Norway  on  his  return  from  Greenland  (see  p.  264) ;  for  even  if  this  were  his- 
torical, which  is  doubtful,  and  even  if  it  be  referred  to  a  date  anterior  to  Leif's 
voyage,  which  is  not  certain  either,  he  was  driven  there  accidentally  instead  of 
to  Iceland. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

on  the  way.  It  also  appears  clearly  enough  from  the  sailing 
directions  for  navigation  of  northern  waters  which  have  tome 
down  to  us,  that  voyages  were  made  across  the  ocean  direct 
from  Norway  to  Greenland.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
compass  was  unknown,  and  that  all  the  ships  of  that  time  were 
without  fixed  decks.  This  was  an  exploit  equal  to  the  greatest 
in  history;  it  is  the  beginning  of  ocean  voyages. 

Leif's  plan  of  reaching  Norway  direct  was  not  wholly 
successful,  according  to  the  saga;  he  was  driven  out  of  his 
course  to  the  Hebrides.  He  stayed  there  till  late  in  the 
summer,  waiting  for  a  fair  wind.     Leif  there  fell  in  love  with 


[From  an  Icelandic  MS.  (Jonsbok),  sixteenth  century] 

a  woman  of  high  lineage,  Thorgunna.  When  he  sailed  she 
begged  to  be  allowed  to  go  with  him;  but  Leif  answered  that 
he  would  not  carry  off  a  woman  of  her  lineage  in  a  strange 
country,  when  he  had  so  few  men  with  him.  It  was  of  no  avail 
that  she  told  him  she  was  with  child,  and  the  child  was  his.  He 
gave  her  a  gold  ring,  a  Greenland  mantle  of  frieze,  and  a  belt 
of  walrus  ivory,  and  sailed  away  from  the  Hebrides  with  his 
men  and  arrived  in  Norway  in  the  autumn  (999).  Leif  became 
Olaf  Tryggvason's  man,  and  spent  the  winter  at  Nidaros.  He 
adopted  Christianity  and  promised  the  king  to  try  to  introduce 
the  faith  into  Greenland.  For  this  purpose  he  was  given  a 
priest  when  he  sailed.  In  the  spring,  as  soon  as  he  was 
ready,  he  set  out  again  to  sail  straight  across  the  Atlantic 
to  Greenland.  It  has  undoubtedly  been  thought  that  he 
chose  the  course  between  the  Faroes  (61°  50'  N.  lat.)  and 
Shetland  (60°  50'  N.  lat.)  to  reach  Cape  Farewell,  and  after- 
wards this  became  the  usual  course  for  the  voyage  from 
316 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Norway  to  Greenland.     But  he  was  driven  out  of  his  course,  / 

and 

"for  a  long  time  drifted  about  in  the  sea,  and  came  upon  countries  of  which 
before  he  had  no  suspicion.  There  were  self-sown  wheat-fields,  and  vines 
grew  there;  there  were  also  the  trees  that  are  called  'masur'  ['mosurr'],i  and 
of  all  these  they  had  some  specimens  [some  trees  so  large  that  they  were 
laid  in  houses"  (i.e.,  used  as  house-beams)]. 

This  land  wds  "  Vinland  hit  G66a."  As  it  was  assumed  that 
the  wild  vine  (Vitis  vulpina)  grew  in  America  as  far  north  as 
45°  N.  lat.  and  along  the  east  coast,  the  historians  have 
thought  to  find  in  this  a  proof  that  Leif  Ericson  must  have 
been  on  the  coast  of  America  south  of  this  latitude;  but, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  these  features — the  self-sown  wheat- 
fields,  the  vines,  and  the  lofty  trees — are  probably  borrowed 
from  elsewhere. 

"  On  his  homeward  voyage  Leif  found  some  men  on  a  wreck,  and  took 
them  home  with  him  and  gave  them  all  shelter  for  the  winter.  He  showed  so 
much  nobility  and  goodness,  he  introduced  Christianity  into  the  country,  and 
he  rescued  the  men;  he  was  then  called  '  Leifr  hinn  Heppni'  [the  Lucky]. 
Leif  came  to  land  in  Eric's  fjord,  and  went  home  to  Brattalid;  there  they  re- 
ceived him  well."     This  was  the  same  autumn  (looo). 

So  concise  is  the  narrative  of  the  voyage  by  which  the 
first  discovery  of  America  by  Europeans  is  said  to  have  been 
made.^ 

Curiously  enough,  the  saga  tells  us  nothing  more  of  Leif 
as  a  sailor.  He  appears  after  'this  to  have  lived  in  ^peace  in 
Greenland,  and  he  took  over  Brattalid  after  his  father's 
death.  On  the  other  hand,  we  hear  that  his  brother 
Thorstein  made  an  attempt  to  find  Wineland,  which  Leif  had 
discovered.     After     Leif's    return    home     "  there    was     much 

1  "  Mosurr  "  (properly  "  valbirch  ")  was  probably  a  veined  tree,  like  "  val- 
bjerk,"  which  was  regarded  as  valuable  material.  "  Valbjerk  "  is  birch  grown 
in  a  special  way  so  that  it  becomes  twisted  and  gnarled  in  structure.  It  is 
still  much  used  in  Norway,  e.g.,  for  knife-handles. 

- 1  do  not  mention  here  the  fourteenth-century  tale  (in  the  Flateyjarbok) 
of  Bjarne  Herjulfsson's  discovery  of  Wineland  as  early  as  985,  since,  as  G. 
Storm  has  shown,  this  account  hardly  represents  the  tradition  which  in  earlier 
times  was  most  current  in  Iceland. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

talk  that  they  ought  to  seek  the  land  that  Leif  had  found. 
The  leader  was  Thorstein  Ericson,  a  good  man,  and  wise, 
and  friendly."  We  hear  earlier  in  the  saga,  where  Leif's 
voyage  to  Norway  is  related,  that  both  of  Eric's  sons  "  were 
capable  men;  Thorstein  was  at  home  with  his  father,  and 
there  was  not  a  man  in  Greenland  who  was  thought  to  be 
so  manly  as  he."  We  hear  nothing  about  Leif's  taking  part 
in  the  new  voyage ;  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been  Thorstein's  turn  to 
go  abroad.     But 

"  Eric  was  asked,  and  they  trusted  in  his  good  fortune  and  foresight  being 
greatest.  He  was  against  it,  but  did  not  say  no,  as  his  friends  exhorted  him  so 
to  it.  They  therefore  fitted  out  the  ship  which  Thorbjorn  [Vivilsson]  had 
brought  out  to  Greenland;  ^  and  twenty  men  were  chosen  for  it;  they  took 
little  goods  with  them,  but  more  arms  and  provisions.  The  morning  that  Eric 
left  home,  he  took  a  little  chest,  and  therein  was  gold  and  silver;  he  hid  this 
property  and  then  went  on  his  way;  but  when  he  had  gone  a  little  distance  he 
fell  from  his  horse,  broke  his  ribs  and  hurt  his  shoulder,  and  said,  'Ah,  yes!" 
After  this  accident  he  sent  word  to  his  wife  that  she  should  take  up  the  prop- 
erty that  he  had  hidden;  he  had  now,  said  he,  been  punished  for  hiding  it. 
Then  they  sailed  out  of  Eric's  fjord  with  gladness,  and  thought  well  of  their 
prospects.  They  drifted  about  the  sea  for  a  long  time  and  did  not  arrive 
where  they  desired.  They  came  in  sight  of  Iceland,  and  they  had  also  birds 
from  Ireland;  their  ship  was  carried  eastward  over  the  ocean.  They  came 
back  in  the  autumn  and  were  then  weary  and  very  worn.  And  they  came  in 
the  later  autumn  to  Eric's  fjord.  Then  said  Eric:  'In  the  summer  we  sailed 
from  the  fjords  more  light-hearted  than  we  now  are,  and  yet  we  now  have 
good  reason  to  be  so.'  Thorstein  said:  'It  would  be  a  worthy  deed  to  take 
charge  of  the  men  who  are  homeless,  and  to  provide  them  with  lodging.' 
Eric  answered:  'Thy  words  shall  be  followed.'  All  those  who  had  no  other 
place  of  abode  were  now  allowed  to  accompany  Eric  and  Thorstein.  After- 
wards they  took  land  and  went  home." 

1  Thorbjorn  Vivilsson  came  from  Iceland  to  Greenland  in  ggg,  the  same 
summer  that  Leif  tailed  to  Norway.  His  daughter  was  Gudrid,  afterwards 
married  to  Thorstein  Ericson.  The  exact  statement  as  to  which  ship  was 
used  on  this  occasion,  and  as  to  those  which  were  used  later  on  Thorfinn  Karls- 
evne's  expedition,  shows  how  few  ships  there  were  in  Greenland  (and  Ice- 
land), and  in  what  esteem  the  men  were  held  who  owned  them.  The  Saga  of 
Eric  the  Red  seems  to  assume  that  Leif's  ship  was  no  longer  very  fit  for  sea 
after  his  last  voyage,  as  we  hear  no  more  about  it.  This  may  perhaps  be 
regarded  as  the  reason  for  his  not  going  again;  if  indeed  there  be  any  other 
reason  than  the  patchwork  character  of  the  saga.  In  the  Flateyjarbok,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  are  told  that  it  was  Leif's  ship,  and  not  Thorbjorn  Vivila- 
son's,  that  was  used  first  by  Thorvald  and  afterwards  by  Thorstein. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

In  the  autumn  (looi)  Thorstein  celebrated  his  marriage 
with  Thorbjorn  Vivilsson's  daughter  Gudrid,  at  Brattalid,  and 
it  "  went  off  well."  They  afterwards  went  home  to  Thor- 
stein's  property  on  the  Lysefjord,  which  was  the  south- 
ernmost fjord  in  the  Western  Settlement;  probably  that 
which  is  now  called  Fiskerfjord  (near  Fiskernes)  in 
about  63°  N.  lat.  There  Thorstein  died  during  the  winter  of 
an  illness  (scurvy?)  which  put  an  end  to  many  on  the 
property,  and  Gudrid  next  summer  returned  to  Eric,  who 
received  her  well.  Her  father  died  also,  and  she  inherited  all 
his  property. 

That  autumn  (1002)  Thorfinn  Karlsevne  came  from  Iceland 
to  Eric's  fjord  in  Greenland,  with  one  ship  and  forty  men.  He 
was  on  a  trading  voyage,  and  was  looked  upon  as  a  skilful  sailor 
and  merchant,  was  of  good  family,  and  rich  in  goods.  To- 
gether with  him  was  Snorre  Thorbrandsson.  Another  ship,  with 
Bjarne  Grimolfsson  and  Thorhall  Gamlason  and  a  crew  likewise 
of  forty  men,  had  accompanied  them  from  Iceland. 

"  Eric  rode  to  the  ships,  and  others  of  the  men  of  the  country,  and  there  was 
a  friendly  agreement  between  them.  The  captains  bade  Eric  take  what  he 
wished  of  the  cargo.  But  Eric,  in  return,  showed  great  generosity,  in  that  he 
invited  both  these  crews  home  to  spend  the  winter  at  Brattalid.  This  the 
merchants  accepted  and  went  with  Eric. 

"  The  merchants  were  well  content  in  Eric's  house  that  winter,  but  when 
Yule  was  drawing  nigh,  Eric  began  to  be  less  cheerful  than  was  his  wont." 
When  Karlsevne  asked:  "Is  there  anything  that  oppresses  thee,  Eric?"  and 
tried  to  find  out  the  reason  of  his  being  so  dispirited,  it  came  out  that  it  was 
because  he  had  nothing  for  the  Yule-brew;  and  it  would  be  said  that  his 
guests  had  never  had  a  worse  Yule  than  with  him.  Karlsevne  thought  there 
was  no  difficulty  about  that;  they  had  malt,  and  meal,  and  corn  in  the  ships, 
and  thereof,  said  he,  "  thou  shall  have  all  thou  desirest,  and  make  such  a  feast 
as  thy  generosity  demands."  Eric  accepted  this.  "  The  Yule  banquet  was 
prepared,  and  it  was  so  magnificent  that  men  thought  they  had  scarcely  ever 
seen  so  fine  a  feast." 

Even  if  the  tale  is  unhistorical,  it  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  life 
and  the  hard  conditions  in  Greenland;  they  only  had  grain  oc- 
casionally when  a  ship  arrived;  for  the  most  part  they  lived 
on  what  they  caught,  and  when  that  failed,  as  we  are 
told    was    the    case    in    999,    there    was    famine.     But    to    be 

319 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

without  the  Yule-brew  was  a  misfortune  to  an  Icelander;  never- 
theless we  learn  from  the  Foster-brothers'  Saga  that  "  Yule- 
drink  was  rare  in  Greenland,"  and  that  a  man  might  become 
famous  by  holding  a  feast,  as  did  Thorkel,  the  grandson  of  Eric 
the  Red,  in  1026. 

After  Yule,  Karlsevne  was  married  to  Eric's  daughter-in-law, 

Gudrid. 

"The  feast  was  then  prolonged,  and  the  marriage  was  celebrated.  There 
was  great  merry-making  at  Brattalid  that  winter;  there  was  much  playing  at 
draughts,  and  malting  mirth  with  tales  and  much  else  to  divert  the  company." 

There   was  a   good   deal   of  talk  about   going  to  look  for 

Wineland  the  Good, 
and  it  was  said  that 
it  might  be  a  fertile 
country.  The  result 
was     that     Karlsevne 

[From  an   Icelandic   MS.    (Jonsbok),  fifteenth    ^^^    Snorre    got    their 
century]  ship    ready    to    search 

for  Wineland  in  the 
summer.  Bjarne  and  Thorhall  also  joined  the  expedition 
with  their  ship  and  the  crew  that  had  accompanied  them.  Be- 
sides these,  there  came  on  a  third  ship  a  man  named  Thorvard 
— married  to  Eric  the  Red's  illegitimate  daughter  Freydis, 
who  also  went — and  Thorhall,  nicknamed  Veidemand  (the 
Hunter). 

"  He  had  been  on  hunting  expeditions  with  Eric  for  many  summers  and  was 
a  man  of  many  crafts.  Thorhall  was  a  big  man,  dark  and  troll-like;  he  was 
well  on  in  years,  obstinate,  silent,  and  reserved  in  everyday  life,  but  crafty  and 
slanderous,  ever  rejoicing  in  evil.  He  had  had  little  to  do  with  the  faith  since 
it  came  to  Greenland.  Thorhall  had  little  friendship  for  his  fellow  men,  yet 
Eric  had  long  associated  with  him.  He  was  in  the  same  ship  with  Thorvald 
and  Thorvard,  because  he  had  wide  knowledge  of  the  uninhabited  regions. 
They  had  the  ship  that  Thorbjorn  [Vivilsson]  had  brought  out  to  Green- 
land [and  that  Thorstein  Ericson  had  used  for  his  unlucky  voyage  two  years 
before].  Most  of  those  on  board  that  ship  were  Greenlanders.  On  their 
ships  there  were  altogether  forty  men  over  a  hundred."  ' 

Iff  the  "great  hundred"  is  meant,  this  will  be  160  men. 
320 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Eric  the  Red  and  Leif  were  doubtless  supposed  to  have  as- 
sisted both  actively  and  with  advice  during  the  fitting-out,  even 
though  they  would  not  take  part  in  the  voyage.  It  is  mentioned 
later  that  they  gave  Karlsevne  two  Scottish  runners  that  Leif 
had  received  from  King  Olaf  Tryggvason. 

The  three  ships  sailed  first  "  to  the  Western  Settlement 
and  thence  to  Bjarneyjar "  (the  Bear  Islands).^  The 
most  natural  explanation  of  the  saga  making  them  begin 
their  expedition  by  sailing  in  this  direction  (to  the  north- 
west and  north) — whereas  the  land  they  were  in  search  of 
lay  to  the  south-west  or  south — may  be  that  the  Icelandic 
saga  writer  (of  the  thirteenth  century),  ignorant  of  the 
geography  of  Greenland,  assumed  that  the  Western  Settle- 
ment must  lie  due  west  of  the  Eastern;  and  as  the  voyagers 
•were  to  look  for  countries  in  the  south-west,  he  has  made 
them  begin  by  proceeding  to  the  farthest  point  he  had  heard 
of  on  this  coast,  Bjarneyjar,  so  that  they  might  have  a 
prospect  of  better  luck  than  Thorstein,  who  had  sailed  out 
from  Eric's  fjord.  When  it  is  said  that  Thorhall  the  Hunter 
accompanied  Eric's  son  and  son-in-law  because  of  his  wide 
knowledge  of  the  uninhabited  regions,  it  must  be  the  regions 
beyond  the  Western  Settlement  that  are  meant,  and  the 
saga  writer  must  have  thought  that  these  extended  westward 
or  in  the  direction  of  the  new  countries.  It  must  also  be  re- 
membered that  in  the  spring  and  early  summer  there  is  fre- 
quently drift-ice  off  the  Eastern  Settlement,  from  Cape  Fare- 

1  From  the  context  it  would  seem  probable  that  these  islands,  or  this  island 
(?),  lay  in  the  Western  Settlement.  If  they  had  been  near  Lysefjord,  Karls- 
evne, as  Storm  points  out,  might  be  supposed  to  go  there  first  because  his 
■wife,  Gudrid,  had  inherited  property  there  from  Thorstein,  and  there  might 
be  much  to  fetch  thence.  But  the  name  Bjarneyjar  itself  points  rather  to 
some  place  farther  north,  since  the  southern  part  of  the  Western  Settlement 
(the  Godthaab  district)  must  have  been  then,  as  now,  that  part  of  the  coast 
where  bears  were  scarcest.  In  Bjorn  Jonsson's  "  Gronlandiae  vetus  Choro- 
graphia "  a  "Blarney"  (or  "-eyiar")  is  mentioned,  to  which  it  was  twelve 
days*  rowing  from  Lysefjord  (cf.  above,  p.  301),  and  as  they  are  the  only 
islands  (or  island?)  of  this  name  mentioned  on  the  west  coast  of  Greenland, 
there  is  much  in  favor  of  their  being  the  place  here  alluded  to. 

321 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

well  for  a  good  way  north-westward  along  the  coast.  The 
course  would  then  naturally  lie  to  the  north-west  of  this  ice — 
that  is,  towards  the  Western  Settlement.  But  it  may  also  be 
supposed  that  they  had  to  begin  by  going  northward  to  get  seals 
and  provision  themselves  with  food  and  oil  (fuel),  which  might 
be  necessary  for  a  long  and  unknown  voyage.  This  explanation 
is,  however,  less  probable. 

From  Bjarneyjar  they  put  to  sea  with  a  north  wind.     They 
were  at  sea,  according  to  the  saga,  for  two  "  doegr."  ' 

"  There  they  found  land,  and  rowed  along  it  in  boats,  and  examined  the 

1  "  DcEgr  "  was  half  a  twenty-four  hours'  day  [cf.  Rymbegla] ;  but  whether 
twelve  hours  or  twenty-four,  the  distance,  like  those  given  later,  is  impossible. 
They  cannot  have  sailed  from  Greenland  to  Labrador,  or  even  if  it  was  Baffin 
Land  they  made,  in  two  days  of  twelve  hours,  and  scarcely  in  two  of  twenty- 
four.  According  to  the  MS.  in  the  Hauksbok  "  they  sailed  thence  [i.e.,  from 
Bjarneyjar]  two  half-days  [i.e.,  twenty-four  hours  in  all]  to  the  south.  Then 
they  sighted  land."  It  might  be  supposed  that  this  should  be  taken  to  mean 
that  the  difference  in  latitude  between  this  land  and  their  starting-point  was 
equivalent  to  two  half-days'  sail.  It  is  true  that  we  read  in  the  "  Rymbegla  " 
[1780,  p.  482]  there  are  two  dozen  sea  leagues,  or  two  degrees  of  latitude,  in 
a  "'doegr's'  sailing,"  and  two  "dcegr"  would  therefore  be  four  degrees;  but 
when  we  see  later  that  from  this  first  land  they  found  to  Markland  (Newfound- 
land?) was  also  only  two  half -days'  sail,  then  these  distances  become  altogether 
impossible  [cf.  G.  Storm,  1888,  pp.  32-34;  Reeves,  1895,  p.  173].  Reeves  proposes 
that  "tvau"  might  be  an  error  for  "siau"  (i.e.,  seven;  but  in  the  MS.  of  the 
Hauksbok  we  have  "two"  in  numerals:  II).  It  is  probable  that  this  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  distance,  two  "  doegr's  "  sail,  in  the  case  of  each  of  the  three 
new  countries,  has  nothing  to  do  with  reality;  it  reminds  us  so  much  of  the 
stereotyped  legendary  style  that  we  are  inclined  to  believe  it  to  be  borrowed 
from  this.  Storm  thinks  that  as  Iceland  was  supposed  to  lie  in  the  same  lati- 
tude as  the  Western  Settlement,  and  Wineland  in  the  same  latitude  as  Ireland, 
there  would  naturally  be  the  same  distance  between  the  Western  Settlement 
and  Wineland  as  between  Iceland  and  Ireland,  and  the  latter  was  put  at  five 
(  or  three?)  "  dcegr."  However,  it  is  not  five,  but  six  "  doegr  "  between  Bjarney- 
jar and  FurSustrandir,  according  to  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  [cf.  Storm's  ed., 
i8gi,  p.  32].  In  the  copy  in  the  Hauksbok,  it  is  true,  the  distance  is  given  as 
two  "dcegr"  between  Bjarneyjar  and  Helluland,  two  "dcegr"  between  this 
and  Markland,  and  "  thence  they  sailed  south  along  the  coast  a  long  way  and 
came  to  a  promontory  .  .  .";  but  this  circumstance,  that  the  distance  is  not 
given  the  third  time,  again  inclines  one  to  think  of  the  fairy  tale,  and  here 
again  there  is  no  statement  that  the  distance  was  five  "  doegr  "  from  the  West- 
ern Settlement  to  Kjalames. 
322 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

country,  and  found  there  [on  the  shore]  many  flat  stones  so  large  that  two 
men  might  easily  lie  stretched  upon  them  sole  to  sole.  There  were  many 
white  foxes  there.i     They  gave  the  land  a  name  and  called  it  '  Helluland.' " 

It  may  be  the  coast  of  Labrador  that  is  here  intended,  and 
not  Baffin  Land,  since  the  statement  that  they  sailed  thither  with 
a  north  wind  must  doubtless  imply  that  the  coast  lay  more  or 
less  in  a  southerly,  and  not  in  a  westerly,  direction  from  Bjarney- 
jar.     From  Helluland 

"  they  sailed  for  two  '  dcegr '  towards  the  south-east  and  south,  and  then  a 
land  lay  before  them,  and  upon  it  were  great  forests  and  many  beasts.  An 
island  lay  to  the  south-east  off  the  land,  and  there  they  found  a  polar  bear,3 
and  they  called  the  island  'Bjarney';  but  the  country  they  called  'Markland' 
[i.e.,  woodland]  on  account  of  the  forest." 

The  name  Markland  suits  Newfoundland  best;  it  had  forests 
down  to  the  sea-shore  when  it  was  rediscovered  about  1500,  and 
even  later. 

When  they  had  once  more  sailed  for 

"  two  '  dcEgr '  they  sighted  land  and  sailed  under  the  land.  There  was  a  pro- 
montory where  they  first  came.  They  cruised  along  the  shore,  which  they 
kept  to  starboard  [i.e.,  to  the  west].  It  was  without  harbors  and  there  were 
long  strands  and  stretches  of  sand.  They  went  ashore  in  boats,  and  found 
there  on  the  promontory  a  ship's  keel,  and  called  it  '  Kjalarnes '  [i.e.,  Keel- 
ness] ;  they  also  gave  the  strands  a  name  and  called  them  '  FurSustrandir '  [i.e., 
the  marvel-strands  or  the  wonderful,  strange  strands],  because  it  took  a  long 
time  to  sail  past  them."  ^ 

1  The  arctic  fox  is  common  in  Labrador,  but  also  in  the  northern  peninsula 
of  Newfoundand. 

2  Polar  bears  come  on  the  drift-ice  to  the  north  and  cast  coasts  of  New- 
foundland, but  not  farther  south. 

3  The  name  comes  from  "  furfa  "  (warning,  marvel,  terror);  "furSu"  (gen. 
sing.)  placed  before  adjectives  and  adverbs  has  the  meaning  of  extremely 
("furSu  goSr"  =  extremely  good).  As  "  FurSustjarna "  (the  wonder-star) 
surpassed  the  others  in  size  and  brilliance,  these  strands  may  be  supposed  to 
surpass  others  in  length,  and  thus  to  be  endless;  but  it  is  doubtless  more 
likely  that  it  means  marvel-strands,  where  there  were  marvels  and  wonderful 
things.  In  Orskog,  Sunnmore,  Norway,  there  is  a  place-name  "  Furstranda  " 
(with  long,  closed  "u").  K.  Rygh  [Norske  Gaardnavne,  xiii.  1908,  p.  155] 
remarks:  "The  first  syllable  must  be  the  tree-name  "  fura "  [fir],  though 
the  pronunciation  with  a  long,  closed  '  u '  is  strange.     .    .    ." 

323 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

This  may  apply,  as  Storm  points  out,  to  the  eastern  side 
of  Cape  Breton  Island;  but  in  that  case  they  must  have 
steered  west-south-west  from  the  south-eastern  promontory 
of  Markland  (Newfoundland).  Kjalames  must  then  be  Cape 
Breton  itself.  That  they  should  have  found  a  ship's  keel 
there  sounds  strange;  if  this  is  not  an  invention  we  must 
suppose  that  it  was  driven  ashore  from  a  wreck;  no  doubt 
it  happened  often  enough  that  vessels  were  lost  on  the  voyage 
to  Greenland.  When  Eric,  according  to  the  Landnamabok, 
sailed  with  twenty-five  ships,  many  of  them  were  lost. 
Wreckage  would  be  carried  by  the  currents  from  Greenland 
into  the  Labrador  current,  and  by  this  southward  past 
Markland.  But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  origin  of  the 
name  was  entirely  different;  that,  for  example,  the  promon- 
tory had  the  shape  of  a  ship's  keel,  and  that  the  account 
of  the  keel  found  has  been  developed  much  later.^  This  is  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  the  "  Gronlendinga-f'attr "  gives  a 
wholly  different  explanation  of  the  name  from  that  in  Eric's 
saga. 

South  of  Furfustrandir  "  the  land  was  indented  by  bays   (vagskorit),  and 
they  steered  the  ships  into  a  bay."     Here  they  landed  the  two  Scots  (the  man 

1  In  the  Faroes   (Kodlafjord  in   Straumsey)  there  is  a  "  Kjal(ar)nes,"  the 
origin  of  which  is  attributed  to  a  man's  name:  "  Kjolur  a  Nesi"  [J.  Jakobsen 
1898,  p.  147] ;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  the  name  of  the  "  ness  "  is  the  orig- 
inal one,  and  that  the  legend  of  Kjolur  is  later.     As  to  place-names  ending  in 
" -nes,"   O.   Rygh    [Norske    Gaardnavne,   Forord   og   Indledning,   1898,   p.  68] 
says:     "  Frequently  the  first  part  of  the  name  is  a  word  signifying  natural  con- 
ditions on  or  about  the  promontory.    .   .    .    Very  often  the  first  part  has  refer- 
ence to  the  form  of  the  promontory,  its  outline,  greater  or  less  height,  length, 
etc.    .    .    .    Personal  names  are  not  usual  in  these  combinations."     In  Norway 
names  beginning  with  "  Kjol-  "  ("  -nes,"  "  -berg,"  "  -stad,"  "  -set,"  etc.)  are  very 
common;  they  may  either  come  from  the  man's  name  "PjoSolfr"  (which  now 
often  has  the  sound  of  "  Kjolv,"  "  Kjol,"  or  "  Kjole  "),  or  from  the  Old  Norse 
poetical  word  "  kjoll,"  m.,  "ship,"  or  from  "  kJ9lr  "  (gen.  "kjalar"),  "keel  of 
a  vessel,  and  hence  a  mountain-ridge  "  [cf.  O.  Rygh,  Norske  Gaardnavne,  i. 
1897,  p.  269;  iv.  2,  ed.,  A.  Kjaer,  1902,  p.  57;  vi.  ed.  A.  Kjaer,  p.  237;  xiii.  ed.  K. 
Rygh,  1908,  p.  344].     The  Norwegian  Kjalarnes  above  must  undoubtedly  be 
derived  from  the  last.     In  Tanen,  east  of  Berlevag,  there  is  a  "Kjolnes";  in. 
Iceland,  just  north  of  Reykjavik,  outside  Faxaf jord,  there  is  a  "  Kjalarnes." 

324 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Haki  and  the  woman  Hekja)  whom  Karlsevne  had  received  from  Leif 
and  Eric,  and  who  ran  faster  than  deer.  They  "  bade  them  run  southward  and 
examine  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  return  before  three  '  dcegr '  were 
past.  They  had  such  garments  as  they  called  '  kiafal '  [or  '  biafal '] ;  it  was 
made  so  that  there  was  a  hood  above,  and  it  [i.e.,  the  '  kiafal ']  was  open  at 
the  sides,  and  without  sleeves,  and  caught  up  between  the  legs,  fastened  there 
with  a  button  and  a  loop;  otherwise  they  were  bare.  They  cast  anchor  and  lay 
there  a  while;  and  when  three  days  were  past  they  came  running  down  from 
the  land,  and  one  of  them  had  grapes  in  his  hand,  the  other  self-sown  wheat. 
Karlsevne  said  that  they  seemed  to  have  found  a  fertile  country." 

They  then  sailed  on  until  they  came  to  a  fjord,  into  which 
they  steered  the  ships. 

"  There  was  an  island  outside,  and  round  the  island  strong  currents.  They 
called  it  '  Straumsey.'  There  were  so  many  birds  there  that  one  could  hardly 
put  one's  foot  between  the  eggs.  They  held  on  up  the  fjord,  and  called  it 
'  Straumsf  jord,'  and  unloaded  the  ships  and  established  themselves  there.  They 
had  with  them  all  kinds  of  cattle,  and  sought  to  make  use  of  the  land.  There 
were  mountains  there,  and  fair  was  the  prospect.  They  did  nothing  else  but 
search  out  the  land.  There  was  much  grass.  They  stayed  there  the  winter, 
and  it  was  very  long;  but  they  had  not  taken  thought  of  anything,  and  were 
short  of  food,  and  their  catch  decreased.  Then  they  went  out  to  the  island, 
expecting  that  there  they  might  find  some  fishing  or  something  might  drift  up 
[i.e.,  a  whale  be  driven  ashore?].  There  was,  however,  little  to  be  caught  for 
food,  but  their  cattle  throve  there.  Then  they  made  vows  to  God  that  he 
might  send  them  something  to  eat;  but  no  answer  came  so  quickly  as  they 
had  hoped."  The  heathen  Thorhall  the  Hunter  then  disappeared  for  three 
"  doegr,"  and  doubtless  held  secret  conjurations  with  the  red-bearded  One  (i.e., 
Thor).  A  little  later  a  whale  was  driven  ashore,  and  they  ate  of  it,  but  were 
all  sick.  When  they  found  out  how  things  were  with  Thorhall  and  Thor, 
"  they  cast  it  out  over  the  cliff  and  prayed  to  God  for  mercy.  They  then  made 
a  catch  of  fish,  and  there  was  no  lack  of  food.  In  the  spring  [1004]  they  en- 
tered Straumsfjord  and  had  catches  from  both  lands  [i.e.,  both  sides  of  the 
fjord],  hunting  on  the  mainland,  eggs  on  the  island,  and  fish  in  the  sea." 

This  description  gives  a  good  insight  both  into  the  Norse- 
men's manner  of  equipping  themselves  for  voyages  to  unknown 
countries,  and  into  their  superstition. 

It  looks  as  if  a  dissension  now  arose  between  the  wayward 
Thorhall  the  Hunter  and  the  rest,  since  he  wanted  to  look  for 
Wineland  to  the  north  of  FurSustrandir,  beyond  Kjalarnes. 

"But  Karlsevne  wished  to  go  south  along  the  coast  and  eastward.    He 

325 


IN    NORTHERN    MISTS 

thought  the  land  became  broader  the  farther  south  it  bore;i  but  it  seemed 
to  him  most  expedient  to  try  both  ways  [i.e.,  both  south  and  north]." 

Thorhall  then  parted  from  them;  but  there  were  no  more 
than  nine  men  in  his  company.  Perhaps  they  were  desirous  of 
going  home;  for  from  an  old  lay,  which  the  saga  attributes 
to  Thorhall,  it  appears  that  he  was  discontented  with  the 
whole  stay  there:  he  abuses  the  country,  where  the  war- 
riors had  promised  him  the  best  of  drinks,  but  where  wine 
never  touched  his  lips,  and  he  had  to  take  a  bucket  him- 
self and  fetch  water  to  drink.  And  before  they  hoisted  sail  Thor- 
hall quoth  this  lay : 

"  Let  us  go  homeward, 

where  we  shall  find  fellow  countrymen: 

let  us  with  our  ship  seek 

the  broad  ways  of  the  sea, 

while  the  hopeful 

warriors  (those  who  praise 

the  land)  on  Furffustrandir 

stay  and  boil  whales'  flesh." 
"  Then  they  parted  [from  Karlsevne,  who  had  accompanied  them  out]  and 
sailed  north  of  Furfustrandir  and  Kjalarnes,  and  then  tried  to  beat  westward. 
Then  the  westerly  storm  caught  them  and  they  drifted  to  Ireland,  and  there 
they  were  made  slaves  and  ill  treated.  There  Thorhall  lost  his  life,  as  mer- 
chants have  reported." 

The  last  statement  shows  that  according  to  Icelandic  geo- 
graphical ideas  the  country  round  Kjalarnes  lay  directly  opposite 
Ireland  and  in  the  same  latitude. 

Karlsevne,  with  Snorre,  Bjarne,  and  the  rest,  left  Straums- 
fjord  and  sailed  southward  along  the  coast  (1004). 

"  They  sailed  a  long  time  and  until  they  came  to  a  river,  which  flowed  down 
from  the  interior  into  a  lake  and  thence  into  the  sea.  There  were  great  sand- 
banks before  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  it  could  only  be  entered  at  high 
water.  Karlsevne  and  his  people  then  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  and 
called  the  country  'Hop'   [i.e.,  a  small  closed  bay].     There  they  found  self- 

1  This  idea,  that  the  land  became  broader  towards  the  south,  and  the  coast 
there  turned  eastward,  must  be  the  same  that  we  meet  with  again  in  Icelandic 
geographies  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  where  Wineland  is 
thought  to  be  connected  with  Africa  (see  later). 

326 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

sown  wheat-fields,  where  the  land  was  low,  but  vines  wherever  they  saw 
heights  [en  vinviSr  allt  ^ar  sem  hota  kendi].  Every  beck  [lokr]  was  full 
of  fish.  They  dug  trenches  on  the  shore  below  high-water  mark,  and  when 
the  tide  went  out  there  were  halibuts  in  the  trenches.  In  the  forest  there  was 
a  great  quantity  of  beasts  of  all  kinds.  They  were  there  half  a  month  amusing 
themselves,  and  suspecting  nothing.  They  had  their  cattle  with  them.  But 
early  one  morning,  when  they  looked  about  them,  they  saw  nine  hide-boats 
[hu?keipa],  and  wooden  poles  were  being  waved  on  the  ships  [i.e.,  the  hide- 
boats],  and  they  made  a  noise  like  threshing-flails  and  went  the  way  of  the 
sun.  Karlsevne's  men  took  this  to  be  a  token  of  peace  and  bore  a  white  shield 
towards  them.  Then  the  strangers  rowed  towards  them,  and  wondered,  and 
came  ashore.  There  were  small  [or  black?]  i  men,  and  ugly,  and  they  had 
ugly  hair  on  their  heads;  their  eyes  were  big,  and  they  were  broad  across  the 
cheeks.  And  they  stayed  there  awhile,  and  wondered,  then  rowed  away  and 
went  south  of  the  headland." 

This,  then,  would  be  the  description  of  the  first  meeting  in 
history  between  Europeans  and  the  natives  of  America.  With 
all  its  brevity  it  gives  an  excellent  picture;  but  whether  we  can 
accept  it  is  doubtful.  As  we  shall  see  later,  the  Norsemen  prob- 
ably did  meet  with  Indians;  but  the  description  of  the  latter's 
appearance  must  necessarily  have  been  colored  more  and  more 
by  greater  familiarity  with  the  Skraslings  of  Greenland  when  the 
sagas  were  put  into  writing.  The  big  eyes  will  not  suit  either 
of  them,  and  are  rather  to  be  regarded  as  an  attribute  of 
trolls  and  underground  beings;  gnomes  and  old  fairy  men 
have  big,  watery  eyes.  The  ugly  hair  is  also  an  attribute  of  the 
underground  beings. 

"  Karlsevne  and  his  men  had  built  their  houses  above  the  lake,  some  nearer, 
some  farther  off.  Now  they  stayed  there  that  winter.  No  snow  fell  at  all, 
and  all  the  cattle  were  out  at  pasture.  But,  when  spring  came,  they  saw  early 
one  morning  a  number  of  hide-boats  rowing  from  the  south  past  the  headland, 
so  many  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  sea  had  been  sown  with  coal  in  front  of  the 
bay,  and  they  waved  wooden  poles  on  every  boat.  Then  they  set  up  shields 
and  held  a  market,  and  the  people  wanted  most  to  buy  red  cloth;  they  also 
wanted  to  buy  swords  and  spears,  but  this  was  forbidden  by  Karlsevne  and 
Snorre."     The    Skraslings  =   gave   them    untanned    skins    in   exchange   for   the 

1 "  Svart "  (i.e.,  black-haired  and  black-eyed)  is  the  reading  of  Hauksbok, 
but  the  other  MS.  has  "  small." 

-  The  word  "  Skraslingar  "  here  occurs  for  the  first  time  in  this  saga,  and 
seems  to  be  used  as  a  familiar  designation  for  the  natives,  which  did  not  re- 
quire further  explanation;  of  this  more  later. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

cloth,  and  trade  was  proceeding  briskly,  until  "  an  ox,  which  Karlsevne  had, 
ran  out  of  the  wood  and  began  to  bellow.  The  Skraelings  were  scared  and  ran 
to  their  boats  [keipana]  and  rowed  south  along  the  shore.  After  that  they  did 
not  see  them  for  three  weeks.  But  when  that  time  was  past,  they  saw  a  great 
multitude  of  Skraeling  boats  coming  from  the  south,  as  though  driven  on  by 
a  stream.  Then  all  the  wooden  poles  were  waved  against  the  sun  [rangsolis, 
wither-shins],  and  all  the  Skraelings  howled  loudly.  Then  Karlsevne  and  his 
men  took  red  shields  and  bore  them  towards  them.  The  Skraelings  leapt  from 
their  boats,  and  then  they  made  towards  each  other  and  fought;  there  was  a  hot 
exchange  of  missiles.  The  Skraelings  also  had  catapults  [valslongur].  Karls- 
evne and  his  men  saw  that  the  Skraelings  hoisted  up  on  a  pole  a  great  ball 
[knpttr]  about  as  large  as  a  sheep's  paunch,  and  seeming  blue  ^  in  color, 
and  slung  it  from  the  pole  up  on  to  the  land  over  Karlsevne's  people,  and  it 
made  an  ugly  noise  when  it  came  down.  At  this,  great  terror  smote  Karlsevne 
and  his  people,  so  that  they  had  no  thought  but  of  getting  away  and  up  the 
river,  for  it  seemed  to  them  that  the  Skraelings  were  assailing  them  on  all 
sides;  and  they  did  not  halt  until  they  had  reached  certain  crags.  There  they 
made  a  stout  resistance.  Freydis  came  out  and  saw  that  they  were  giving  way. 
She  cried  out:  'Wherefore  do  ye  run  away  from  such  wretches,  ye  gallant 
men?  I  thought  it  likely  that  ye  could  slaughter  them  like  cattle,  and  had  I 
but  arms  I  believe  I  should  fight  better  than  any  of  you.'  None  heeded  what 
she  said.  Freydis  tried  to  go  with  them,  but  she  fell  behind,  for  she  was  with 
child.  She  nevertheless  followed  them  into  the  wood,  but  the  Skraslings  came 
after  her.  She  found  before  her  a  dead  man,  Thorbrand  Snorrason,  and  a  flat 
stone  [hellustein]  was  fixed  in  the  head  of  him.  His  sword  lay  unsheathed 
by  him,  and  she  took  it  up  to  defend  herself  with  it.  Then  the  Skraelings  came 
at  her.  She  takes  her  breasts  out  of  her  sark  and  whets  the  sword  on  them. 
At  that,  the  Skraelings  are  afraid  and  run  away  back  to  their  boats,  and  go  off. 
Karlsevne  and  his  men  meet  her  and  praise  her  happy  device.  Two  men  of 
Karlsevne's  fell,  and  four  of  the  Skraelings;  but  nevertheless  Karlsevne  had 
suffered  defeat.  They  now  go  to  their  houses,  bind  up  their  wounds,  and  con- 
sider what  swarm  of  people  it  was  that  came  against  them  from  the  land. 
It  seemed  to  them,  now,  that  there  could  have  been  no  more  than  those  who 
came  from  the  boats,  and  that  the  other  people  must  have  been  glamour.  The 
Skraelings  also  found  a  dead  man,  and  an  ax  lay  beside  him;  one  of  them  took 
up  the  ax  and  struck  at  a  tree,  and  so  one  after  another,  and  it  seemed  to  de- 
light them  that  it  bit  so  well.  Then  one  took  and  smote  a  stone  with  it;  but 
when  the  ax  broke,  he  thought  it  was  of  no  use,  if  it  did  not  stand  against 
stone,  and  he  cast  it  from  him." 

"  Karlsevne  and  his  men  now  thought  they  could  see  that  although  the  land 
was  fertile,  they  would  always  have  trouble  and  disquiet  with  the  people  who 
dwelt  there  before.     Then  they  prepared  to  set  out,  and  intended  to  go  to  their 


1  Blue  (bla)  perhaps  means  rather  dark  or  black  in  color  (cf.  "  Blue-men," 
for  negroes),  and  is  often  used  of  something  uncanny  or  troll-like. 

328 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

own  country.  They  sailed  northward  and  found  five  Skraelings  sleeping  in  fur 
jerkins  [skinnhjupum],  and  they  had  with  them  kegs  with  deer's  marrow 
mixed  with  blood.  They  thought  they  could  understand  that  they  were  out- 
laws; they  killed  them.  Then  they  found  a  headland  and  a  multitude  of  deer, 
and  the  headland  looked  like  a  crust  of  dried  dung,  from  the  deer  lying  there 
at  night.  Now  they  came  back  to  Straumsf  jord,  and  there  was  abundance  of 
everything.  It  is  reported  by  some  that  Bjarne  and  Gudrid  remained  behind 
there,  and  a  hundred  men  with  them,  and  did  not  go  farther;  but  they  say  that 
Karlsevne  and  Snorre  went  southward  with  forty  men  and  were  no  longer  at 
Hop  than  barely  two  months,  and  came  back  the  same  summer." 

Karlsevne  went  with  one  ship  to  search  for  Thorhall  the 
Hunter.     He    sailed    to    the    north  ^ 

of  Kjalarnes,  westwards,  and  south 
along  the  shore  (Storm  thought 
on  the  eastern  side  of  Cape  Breton 
Island  to  the  northern  side  of 
Nova  Scotia),  and  they  found  a 
river  running  from  east  to  west 
into  the  sea. 

Here    Thorvald   Ericson   was   shot  one 
morning    from    the    shore    with    an    arrow  ^-p^^^  an  Icelandic  MS. 

which   they  thought  came  from   a   Uniped    (J6nsb6k),  fourteenth  century] 
(legendary  creature  with   one  foot)   whom 

they  pursued  but  did  not  catch.  The  arrow  struck  Thorvald  in  the  small  in- 
testines. He  drew  it  out,  saying:  "There  is  fat  in  the  bowels;  a  good  land 
have  we  found,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  we  shall  enjoy  it."  Thorvald  died  of 
this  wound  a  little  later.  "  They  then  sailed  away  northward  again  and  thought 
they  sighted  '  Einf otinga-land '  [the  Land  of  Unipeds].  They  would  no  longer 
risk  the  lives  of  their  men,"  and  "  they  went  back  and  stayed  in  Straumsf  jord 
the  third  winter.  Then  the  men  became  very  weary  [so  that  they  fell  into  dis- 
agreement] ;  those  who  were  wifeless  quarreled  with  those  who  had  wives."' 

The  fourth  summer  (1006)  they  sailed  from  Wineland  with  a 
south  wind  and  came  to  Markland. 

There  they  found  five  Skraelings,  and  caught  of  them  two  boys,  while  the 
grown-up  ones,  a  bearded  man  and  two  women,  "  escaped  and  sank  into  the 


1  Nothing  of  the  kind  is  related  in  the  "  Gronlendinga-l'attr ";  where, 
however,  we  are  told  of  the  first  winter  of  Karlsevne's  voyage  that  the  cattle 
pastured  upon  the  land,  "but  the  males  [grai5fe]  soon  became  difficult  to 
manage  and  troublesome." 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

earth.  The  boys  they  took  with  them  and  taught  them  their  language,  and 
they  were  baptized.  They  called  their  mother  '  Vaetilldi '  and  their  father 
'  Vaegi.'  They  said  that  kings  governed  in  Skraslinga-land;  one  of  them  was 
called  '  Avalldamon '  the  other  '  Valldidida.'  They  said  that  there  were  no 
houses,  and  the  people  lay  in  rock-shelters  or  caves.  They  said  there  was 
another  great  country  over  against  their  country,  and  men  went  about  there 
in  white  clothing  and  cried  aloud,  and  carried  poles  before  them,  to  which 
strips  were  fastened.  This  is  thought  to  be  '  Hvitramanna-land '  [i.e.,  the 
white  men's  land]  or  Great  Ireland."  Then  Karlsevne  and  his  men  came  to 
Greenland  and  stayed  the  winter  with  Eric  the  Red  (1006-1007). 

"  But  Bjarne  Grimolfsson  [on  the  other  ship]  was  carried  out  into  the  Irish 
Ocean  [the  Atlantic  between  Markland  and  Ireland]  and  they  came  into  the 
maggot-sea  [ma6k-sja] ;  they  did  not  know  of  it  until  the  ship  was  worm- 
eaten  under  them,"  and  ready  to  sink.  "They  had  a  long-boat  [eptirbat] 
that  was  coated  with  seal-tar,  and  men  say  that  the  sea-maggot  will  not  eat 
wood  that  is  coated  with  seal-tar.  But  when  they  tried  it,  the  boat  would 
not  hold  more  than  half  the  ship's  company."  They  all  wanted  to  go  in  it; 
but  Bjarne  then  proposed  that  they  should  decide  who  should  go  in  the  boat 
by  casting  lots  and  not  by  precedence,  and  this  was  agreed  to.  The  lots  fell 
so  that  Bjarne  was  amongst  those  who  were  to  go  in  the  boat.  "  When  they 
were  in  it,  a  young  Icelander,  who  had  accompanied  Bjarne  from  home,  said: 
'Dost  thou  think,  Bjarne,  to  part  from  me  here?'  Bjarne  answers:  'So  it 
must  be.'  He  says:  'This  was  not  thy  promise  when  I  came  with  thee 
from  Iceland.  .  .  .'  Bjarne  answers:  'Nor  shall  it  be  so;  go  thou  in  the 
boat,  but  I  must  go  in  the  ship,  since  I  see  that  thy  life  is  so  dear  to  thee.' 
Bjarne  then  went  on  board  the  ship,  and  this  man  in  the  boat,  and  they  kept 
on  their  course  until  they  came  to  Dyflinar  [Dublin]  in  Ireland,  and  there  told 
this  tale.  But  most  men  believe  that  Bjarne  and  his  companions  lost  their 
lives  in  the  maggot-sea,  since  they  were  not  heard  of  again." 

Thorfinn  Karlsevne  returned  in  the  following  summer  (1007) 
to  Iceland  with  Gudrid  and  their  son  Snorre,  who  was  born  at 
Straumsfjord  in  Wineland  the  first  winter  they  were  there. 
Karlsevne  afterwards  lived  in  Iceland. 

If  we  now  review  critically  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red 
and  the  whole  of  this  tale  of  Karlsevne's  voyage,  together  with 
the  other  accounts  of  Wineland  voyages,  we  shall  find  one 
feature  after  another  that  is  legendary  or  that  must  have  been 
borrowed  from  elsewhere.  If  we  examine  first  of  all  the  relation 
of  the  various  authorities  to  the  events  they  narrate,  we  must 
be  struck  by  the  fact  that  in  the  oldest  authorities,  such  as  the 
"  Landnama,"  Eric  the  Red  has  only  two  sons,  Leif  and  Thor- 

330 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

stein,  whereas  in  Eric's  Saga  and  in  the  "  Gronlendinga-f'attr," 
for  the  sake  of  the  trilogy  of  legend,  he  has  begotten  three  sons, 
besides  an  illegitimate  daughter.  In  the  oldest  MS.,  Hauk's 
Landnamabok,  Leif  is  only  mentioned  in  one  place,  and  nothing 
more  is  said  of  him  than  that  he  was  Eric's  son  and  inherited 
Brattalid  from  his  father;  he  is  not  given  the  nickname 
"  Heppni  "  (the  Lucky),  and  it  is  not  mentioned  that  he  had 
discovered  Wineland,  nor  that  he  had  introduced  Christianity. 
In  the  Sturlubok  he  is  again  mentioned  in  one  place  as  the 
son  of  Tjodhild  and  Eric,  and  there  has  the  nickname  "  en 
hepni " ;  but  neither  is  there  here  any  mention  of  the 
discovery  of  Wineland  or  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
[cf.  Landnamabok,  ed.  F.  Jonsson,  1900,  pp.  35,  156,  165]. 
As  this  passage  is  not  found  in  Hauk's  "  Landnama,"  it  may  be 
an  addition  in  the  later  MS.,  which  was  wanting  in  the 
original  Landnamabok.  In  the  great  saga  of  St.  Olaf ' 
[chapter  70] — where  King  Olaf  asks  the  Icelander  Thorarinn 
Nevjolfsson  to  take  the  blind  king  Rorek  to  Greenland  to 
Leif  Ericson — the  latter  again  is  not  called  the  Lucky, 
nor  is  Wineland  or  its  discovery  mentioned.  This  saga  was 
written,  according  to  the  editors,  about  1230.  As  neither  this 
nickname  nor  the  tales  of  Leif's  discovery  of  Wineland  are 
found  earlier  than  in  the  "  Kristni-saga  "  and  "  Heimskringla,"  it 
looks  as  if  these  features  did  not  appear  till  later.  There  is 
a  similar  state  of  things  with  regard  to  the  mention  of 
Thorfinn  Karlsevne;  only  in  one  passage  in  Hauk's 
"  Landnama "  is  it  mentioned  that  he  found  "  Vin(d)land  hit 
GoSa " ;  but  as  this  does  not  occur  in  the  Sturlubok,  it 
may  be  an  addition  due  to  Hauk  Erlendsson,  who  regarded 
Thorfinn  as  his  ancestor.  The  silence  of  the  oldest  authorities 
on  the  voyages  to  Wineland  becomes  still  more  striking  when 
we  compare  with  it  the  fact  that  the  Landnamabok  contains 
statements  (with  careful  citation  of  authorities,  showing  that 
they  are  derived  from  Are  Erode  himself)  about  Are 
Marsson,  his  voyage  to  Hvitramanna-land,  and  his  stay  there, 
1  Ed.  by  P.  Munch  and  C.  R.  Unger,  Christiania,  1853,  p.  75. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

which  have  generally  been  regarded  as  far  less  authentic 
than  the  tales  of  the  Wineland  voyages.  If  Are  Marsson's 
voyage  is  a  myth,  then  one  would  be  still  more  inclined  to 
regard  the  latter  as  such.  The  objection  that  it  would  have 
been  beside  the  plan  of  the  brief  and  concise  earlier  works 
(Islendingabok  and  Landnamabok)  to  include  these  things, 
scarcely  holds  good.  If  Are  has  room  in  the  Islendingabok 
for  a  comparatively  detailed  account  of  the  discovery,  naming, 
and  natives  of  Greenland,  and  further  for  a  description  of  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  Iceland;  if  the  Landnama- 
bok also  gives  details,  derived,  as  we  have  said,  from  him,  of 
Are  Marsson's  voyage  to  Hvitramanna-land,  then  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  why  neither  Are  Frode  nor  the  authors 
of  the  Landnamabok,  when  mentioning  Eric  the  Red  and 
Leif,  should  have  found  room  for  a  line  about  Leif's  having 
discovered  Wineland  and  christianized  Greenland — two  not 
unimportant  pieces  of  information — if  they  had  known  of  it. 
At  any  rate,  the  christianizing  of  Greenland  must  have  been 
of  interest  to  the  priest  Are  and  to  the  priest-taught  authors  of 
Landnamabok.     This  silence  is  therefore  suspicious. 

The  personal  names  in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  are  also 
striking.  With  the  exception  of  Eric  himself,  his  wife 
Tjodhild  and  his  son  Leif,  and  a  few  other  names  in  the 
first  part,  which  is  taken  almost  in  its  entirety  from  the 
Landnamabok,  almost  all  the  names  belonging  to  this  saga 
are  connected  with  those  of  heathen  gods,  especially  Thor. 
Eric  has  got  a  third  son,  Thorvald,  who  is  not  mentioned  in 
"  Landnama,"  besides  his  daughter  Freydis,  and  his  son-in-law 
Thorvard.  The  name  Freydis  is  only  known  from  this  one 
woman  in  the  whole  of  Icelandic  literature,  and  several  names 
in  Norse  literature  compounded  of  Frey  seem,  according  to 
Lind,^  to  belong  to  myths  (e.g.,  FreygartSr,  Freysteinn,  and 
Freybjorn).  Other  names  connected  with  the  Wineland 
voyages   in   this   saga   are:     Thorbjorn  Vivilsson    (his   brother 

IE.  H.  Lind:  Norsk-Islandska  dopnamn,  p.  283.     I  owe  it  to  Moltke  Moe 
that  my  attention  was  drawn  to  this  feature  of  the  numerous  heathen  names. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

was  named  Thor-geir  and  his  daughter's  foster-father  Orm 
Thor-geirsson)  came  to  Thor-kjell  of  Herjolfsnes,  where  the 
prophetess  was  called  Thor-bjorg.  Leif's  woman  in  the  Hebri- 
des was  called  Thor-gunna,  and  their  illegitimate  son  Thor-gils. 
Thor-stein  Ericson  had  a  property  together  with  another 
Thor-stein  in  Lysefjord.^  We  have  further  Thor-finn  Karls- 
evne  (son  of  Thord  and  Thor-unn),  Snorre  Thor-brandsson, 
Thor-hall  Gamlason,  Thor-hall  Veidemand  (who  also  had 
dealings  with  the  red-bearded  Thor),  and  Thor-brand  Snorrason 
who  was  killed.  An  exception,  besides  Bjarne  Grimolfsson 
(and  the  runners  Haki  and  Hekja;  see  below),  is  Thorfinn 
Karlsevne's  wife  GucJritSr,"  daughter  of  Thorbjorn  Vivilsson, 
and  mother  of  Snorre.  But  perhaps  one  can  guess  why  she  is 
given  this  name  if  one  reads  through  the  description  of  the 
remarkable  scene  of  soothsaj^ng — at  Thorkjell's  house  on 
Herjolfsnes — between  the  fair  Gudrid,  who  sang  with  such  a 
beautiful  voice,  and  the  heathen  sorceress  Thorbjorg,  where  the 
former  as  a  Christian  woman  refuses  to  sing  the  heathen  charms 
"  VarSlokur,"  as  the  sorceress  asks  her  to  do.  These  numerous 
Thor-names — with  the  two  women's  names,  the  powerful 
Freydis  and  the  fair  Gudrid — which  are  attributed  to  a  time 
when  heathendom  and  Christianity  were  struggling  for  the 
mastery  [cf.  the  tale  of  Thorhall  the  Hunter  and  the  whale], 
have  in  themselves  an  air  of  myth  and  invention.  To  this  must 
be  added  mjrthical  descriptions  like  those  of  the  prophetess  of 
Herjolfsnes,  the  ghosts  at  Lysefjord  the  winter  Thorstein  Eric- 
son  died,  and  others. 

The  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  tells  of  two  voyages  in  search 
of  Wineland  after  Leif's  accidental  discovery  of  the  country. 
The  first  is  Thorstein  Ericson's  unfortunate  expedition,  when 

^  His  wife  is  called  "  Sigrifr,"  which  is  thus  an  exception;  but  in  the 
"  Gronlendinga-J'attr "  she  is  called  "  Grimhildr,"  so  that  her  name  is  uncer- 
tain. There  is  also  mentioned  a  thrall  "  GarSi,"  but,  being  a  thrall,  perhaps 
he  could  not  have  the  name  of  a  god. 

=  It  is  very  curious  that  in  the  chapter-heading  in  the  Hauksbok  she  is 
called  "Purigr,"  but  in  the  text  "Gu6ri6r"  [cf.  Storm,  1891,  p.  23;  Gronl.  hist. 
Mind.,  L  p.   392]. 

333 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

they  did  not  find  the  favored  Wineland,  but  were  driven 
eastward  into  the  ocean  towards  Iceland  and  Ireland.  In  the 
Irish  tale  of  Brandan  ("  Imram  Brenaind,"  of  the  eleventh 
century),  Brandan  first  makes  an  unsuccessful  voyage  to 
find  the  promised  land,  and  arrives,  it  seems,  most  probably 
in  the  east  of  the  ocean,  somewhere  about  Brittany  [cf.  Vita 
S.  Brandani ;  and  Machutus's  voyage] ;  but  he  then  makes 
a  fresh  voyage  in  which  he  finally  reaches  the  land  he  is  in 
search  of  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  135  f.].  This  similarity 
with  the  Irish  legend  is  doubtless  not  very  great,  but  perhaps 
it  deserves  to  be  included  with  many  others  to  be  mentioned 
later. 

If  we  now  pass  to  the  tale  itself  of  Karlsevne's  voyage 
we  have  already  seen  (p.  321)  that  its  beginning  with  the 
journey  to  the  Western  Settlement  is  doubtful;  next,  the 
feature  of  his  sailing  to  three  different  countries  in  turn 
(Helluland,  Markland,  and  FurSustrandir),  with  the  same 
number  of  days'  sail  between  each,  must  be  taken  directly 
from  the  fairy  tales.'  Such  a  voyage  is  in  itself  improbable; 
in  the  saga  the  countries  are  evidently  imagined  as  islands  or 
peninsulas,  but  nothing  corresponding  to  this  is  to  be  found 
on  the  coast  of  America.  It  is  inconceivable  that  a  discoverer 
of  Labrador  and  of  the  coast  to  the  south  of  it  should  have 
divided  this  into  several  countries;  it  was  not  till  long  after 
the  rediscovery  of  Newfoundland  and  Labrador  that  the 
sound  between  them  was  found.  If  we  suppose  that  Karls- 
evne  was  making  southward  and  came  first  to  Labrador 
(==  Helluland?),    with    a    coast    extending    south-eastward,    it 

1  It  is  perhaps  more  than  a  coincidence  that  in  the  classical  legends  there 
were  three  groups  of  islands,  the  Gorgades,  the  Hesperides,  and  the  Insulae 
Fortunatas,  to  the  west  of  Africa.  Marcianus  Capella  says  that  it  was  two 
days'  sail  to  the  Gorgades,  then  came  the  Hesperides,  and  besides  the  Insulae 
Fortunatas.  Pliny  also  has  two  days  to  the  Gorgades;  beyond  them  there 
were  two  Hesperides;  he  mentions  also  that  it  was  two  days'  sail  to  the  Hes- 
perian Ethiopians,  etc.  In  the  Flateyjarbok's  description  of  Bjarne  Herjolfs- 
son's  voyage,  which  is  still  more  purely  fairy  tale,  he  sails  for  two  days  from 
the  first  land  he  found  ( =  Wineland)  to  the  second  (  =  Markland),  then 
three  days  to  the  third  (  =  Helluland)  and  finally  four  days  to  Greenland. 

334 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 


is  against  common  sense  that  he  should  voluntarily  have  lost 
sight  of  this  coast  and  put  to  sea  again  in  an  easterly  direction, 
and  then  sight  fresh  land  to  the  south  of  him  two  days  later; 
on  the  other  hand,  this  is  the  usual  mode  of  presentment 
in  fairy  tales  and  myth.  But  let  us  suppose  now  that  he  did 
nevertheless  arrive  in  this  way  at  Newfoundland  (=  Mark- 
land?),  and  then  again  put  to  sea  instead  of  following  the 
coast,    how    could 

he  know  that  this  ^^^°  ^p~-~4£-^^l__J:t---'"^  'V^^T 
time  instead  of 
sailing  eastward 
he  was  to  take  a 
westward  course  ? 
But  this  he  must 
have  done,  for 
otherwise  he  could 
not  have  reached 
Cape  Breton  or 
Nova  Scotia ;  and 
he  must  have  got 
there,  if  we  are  to 
make  anything  out 
of  the  story.  The 
distances  given,  of 
two  "  doegr's  " 
sail  to  each  of 
the     countries,     as 

remarked  on  p.  322,  are  also  foreign  to  reality.'  This  part  of 
the    description    has    therefore    an    altogether    artificial    look. 

1  If  we  assume  that  a  "  doegr's  "  sailing  is  equal  to  two  degrees  of  latitude 
or  120  nautical  miles  (twenty-four  ancient  sea  leagues),  then,  as  shown  on  the 
map  above,  it  will  be  about  four  doegr's  sail  from  Greenland  to  the  nearest 
part  of  Labrador  (not  two).  From  Bjarneyjar  to  Markland  should  be  four 
doegr  according  to  the  saga;  but  the  map  shows  that  it  is  between  eight 
and  ten  dcegr  from  the  Western  Settlement  along  the  coast  of  Labrador  to 
Newfoundland.  On  the  other  hand,  between  Newfoundland  and  Cape  Breton 
two  dcEgr's  sail  will  suit  better. 

335 


j'^doegra  tigling 


The  relative  distances  between  the  countries. 
The  scale  gives  "  doegr's "  sailing  ( =  2  de- 
grees of  latitude),  according  to  the  "  Rym- 
begla."  A  white  cross  marks  the  valley  of  the 
St.  John 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

It  reminds  one  forcibly  of  many  of  the  old  Irish  legendary 
tales  of  wonderful  voyages;  in  particular  the  commencement 
of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  important  may  be  mentioned: 
"  Imram  Maelduin "  (the  tale  of  Maelduin's  voyage),  which 
is  known  in  MSS.  of  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  and  later, 
but  which  was  probably  to  a  great  extent  first  written  down  in 
the  seventh,  or  at  the  latest  in  the  eighth  century  [cf.  Zimmer, 
1889,  p.  289]. 

When  Maelduin  and  his  companions  put  to  sea  from  Ireland  in  a  coracle 
•with  three  hides  (while  Karlsevne  has  three  ships),  they  came  first  to  two  small 
islands  (while  Karlsevne  came  to  Bjarneyjar).     After  this  for  three  days  and 
three  nights  the  Irishmen  came  upon  no  land;  "on  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  "  they  heard  the  waves  breaking  on  a  beach,  but  when  daylight  came  and 
they  approached  the  land,  swarms  of  ants,  as  large  as  foals,  came  down  to  the 
beach  and  showed  a  desire  to  eat  them  and  the  boat  (these  are  the  gold-dig- 
ging  ants   of   Indo-Greek  legend).     This   land   is   the   parallel   to    Helluland, 
where  there  were  a  number  of  arctic  foxes  (cf.  the  description  of  the  arrival 
there,  p.  323).     After  having  fled  thence  for  three  days  and  three  nights,  the 
Irishmen  heard  "  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day  "  the  waves  breaking  on  a 
beach,  and  when  daylight  came  they  saw  a  great,  lofty  island,  with  terraces 
around  it  and  rows  of  trees,  on  which  there  were  many  large  birds;  they  ate 
their  fill  of  these  and  took  some  of  them  in  the  boat.     This  island  might  cor- 
respond to  the  wooded  Markland,  with  its  many  animals,  where  Karlsevne  and 
his  people  killed  a  bear.    After  another  three  days  and  three  nights  at  sea,  the 
Irish  voyagers  "on  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day"  saw  a  great  sandy  island; 
on  approaching  the  shore  they  saw  there  a  fabulous  beast  like  a  horse  with 
dog's  paws  and  claws.     For  fear  of  the  beast  they  rowed  away  without  landing. 
This  great   sandy  island  may  be  compared  with  FurJustrandir,  where   there 
were  no  harbors  and  it  was  difficult  to  land.     The   Irishmen   then  traveled 
"for  a  long  time"  before  they  came  to  a  large,  flat  island,  where  two  men 
landed  to  examine  the  island,  which  they  found  to  be  large  and  broad,  and  they 
saw  marks  of  horses'  hoofs  as  large  as  a  ship's  sail,  and  nutshells  as  large  as 
"coedi"   (a  measure  of  capacity?),  and  traces  of  many  human  beings.     This 
bears    a    resemblance   to    Karlsevne's    having    "  a    long    way "    to    sail    along 
FurSustrandir  before  he  came  to  a  bay,  where  the  two  Scots  went  ashore  to 
examine  the  country,  were  absent  three  days,  and  found  grapes  and  wheat. 
After  that  the  Irishmen  traveled  for  a  week,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  until  they 
came  to  a  great,  lofty  island,  with  a  great  house  on  the  beach,  with  two  doors, 
"one  towards  the  plain  on  the  island  and  one  towards  the  sea";  and  through 
the  latter  the  waves  of  the  sea  threw  salmon  into  the  middle  of  the  house. 
They  found  decorated  couches  and  crystal   goblets  with  good  drink  in  the 
house,  but  no  human  being,  and  they  took  meat  and  drink  and  thanked  God. 
Karlsevne  proceeded  from  the  bay  and  came  to  Straumsey,  which  was  thick 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

with  birds  and  eggs,  and  to  Straumsfjord,  where  they  established  themselves 
(i.e.,  built  houses).  And  there  were  mountains  and  a  fair  prospect  and  high 
grass;  and  they  had  catches  from  two  sides,  "hunting  on  the  land,  and  eggs 
and  fish  from  the  sea";  and  where  to  begin  with  they  did  nothing  but  make 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  land.  From  the  island  with  the  house  Mael- 
duin  and  his  men  traveled  about  "  for  a  long  time,"  hungry  and  without  food, 
until  they  found  an  island  which  was  encompassed  by  a  great  cliff  ("  alt  mor 
impi").  There  was  a  very  thin  and  tall  tree  there;  Maelduin  caught  a  branch 
of  it  in  his  hand  as  they  passed  by;  for  three  days  and  three  nights  the  branch 
was  in  his  hand,  while  the  boat  was  sailing  past  the  cliff,  and  on  the  third  day 
there  were  three  apples  at  the  end  of  the  branch  (cf.  Karlsevne's  runners  who 
returned  after  three  days  with  grapes  and  wheat  in  their  hands),  on  which 
they  lived  for  forty  days.  Karlsevne  and  his  men  suffered  great  want  during 
the  winter  at  Straumsfjord;  and  from  that  place,  where  they  lived  on  land 
in  houses,  they  sailed  "  for  a  long  time  "  before  they  came  to  the  country  with 
the  self-sown  wheat  and  vines,  where  there  were  great  sandbanks  off  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  so  that  they  had  a  difficulty  in  landing. 

It  is  Striking  that,  in  the  voyage  of  Maelduin,  the  distance  is 
only  given  as  three  days'  and  three  nights'  sail  in  the  case  of  the 
three  first  passages  to  the  three  successive  islands,  after  the  first 
two  small  islands,  while  between  the  later  islands  we  are  told 
that  they  sailed  "  a  long  way,"  "  for  a  week,"  "  for  a  long  time," 
etc.;  just  as  in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  where,  after  Bjarney- 
jar,  they  sail  for  two  "  doegr  "  to  each  of  the  three  lands  in  turn, 
and  then  they  had  "  a  long  way  "  to  sail  along  FurSustrandir,  to 
a  bay,  after  which  "  they  went  on  their  way  "  to  Straumsfjord, 
and  thence  they  went  "  for  a  long  time  "  to  Wineland,  etc.  I  do 
not  venture  to  assert  that  there  was  a  direct  connection  be- 
tween the  two  productions,  for  there  are  perhaps  too 
many  dissimilarities;  but  they  seem  in  any  case  to  have  their 
roots  in  one  and  the  same  cycle  of  ideas,  and  the  original 
legend  certainly  reached  Iceland  in  the  shape  of  oral 
narrative. 

The  number  "  three  "  plays  an  important  part  in  Eric's  Saga.  Three  voy- 
ages are  made  to  or  in  search  of  Wineland;  Karlsevne  has  three  ships;  three 
countries  are  visited  in  turn;  three  winters  are  spent  away  (as  with  Eric  the 
Red  on  his  first  voyage  to  Greenland,  but  there  this  was  due  to  his  exile) ;  they 
meet  with  the  Skraslings  three  times;  three  men  fall  (two  in  the  fight  with  the 
Skraelings,  and  afterwards  Thorvald  Ericson) — just  as  Maelduin  (and  also 
Brandan)   loses   three   men;   the   expedition   finally  resolves   itself  into   three 

337 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

separate  homeward  voyages,  Thorhall  the  Hunter's,  Karlsevne's,  and  Bjarne 
Grimolfsson's,  etc.  etc.'  In  the  Irish  legends  and  tales,  e.g.,  those  of  Mael- 
duin  or  of  the  Ua  Corra,  the  repetition  of  the  number  "  three  "  is  even  more 
conspicuous. 

We  may  regard  it  as  another  feature  of  fairy  tale  that  Eric  the  Red  has 
three  sons  who  set  out  one  after  another,  first  Leif,  then  Thorstein,  and  lastly 
Thorvald,  who  finds  the  land  and  takes  part  in  the  attempt  to  settle  it.  But 
this  feature  is  not  conspicuous  enough  to  allow  of  our  attaching  much  import- 
ance to  it,  especially  as  here  it  is  the  first  son  who  is  the  lucky  one,  while  it 
is  not  so  in  fairy  tale. 

In  Leif's  voyage,  in  the  "  Gr6nlendinga-f>attr  "  (which  voyage 
partly  corresponds  to  Karlsevne's),  when  they  came  to  a  coun- 
try south-west  of  Markland,  they  landed  on  an  island,  to  the  north 
of  the  country, 

"  looked  around  them  in  fair  weather,  and  found  that  there  was  dew  on  the 
grass,  and  it  happened  that  they  touched  the  grass  with  their  hands  and  put 
them  in  their  mouths,  and  they  thought  they  had  never  tasted  anything  so 
sweet  as  it  was." 

This  reminds  one  forcibly  of  Moses's  manna  in  the  wil- 
derness, which  appeared  like  dew  [Exodus,  xvi.  14].  In  the 
Old  Norwegian  free  rendering  of  the  Old  Testament,  called 
"  Stjorn,"  -  of  about  1300,  therefore  much  earlier  than  the 
"  Gronlendinga-f^attr,"  the  account  of  this  says  that  dew  came 
from  heaven  round  the  whole  camp,  "  it  stuck  like  slime  on 
the  hands  as  they  touched  it  .  .  .  they  found  that  it 
was  sweet  as  honey  in  taste.  .  .  ."  But  here  again  we  come 
in  contact  with  Irish  legendary  ideas.  In  the  tale  of  the 
"  Navigation  of  the  Sons  of  Ua  Corra "  (of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury) the  voyagers  come  to  an  island  with  a  beautiful  and 
wonderful  plain  covered  with  trees,  full  of  honey,  and  a  grass- 

^  One  must,  of  course,  be  cautious  of  seeing  myth  in  all  such  trilogies.  As 
warning  examples  may  be  mentioned,  that  the  Norwegians  settled  in  Hjalt- 
land  (Shetland),  Orkney,  and  the  Suderoer  (Hebrides);  they  discover  the 
Faroes,  thence  Iceland,  and  then  Greenland,  in  the  same  way  as  they  are  said 
from  the  last  named  to  have  discovered  Helluland,  Markland,  and  Wineland. 
On  the  east  coast  of  Greenland  there  were  three  glaciers,  etc.  But  in  Eric's 
Saga  the  triads  are  so  numerous  and  sometimes  so  peculiar,  and  the  saga 
proves  to  be  made  up  to  such  an  extent  of  loans,  that  one  is  disposed  to  re- 
gard the  number  "  three  "  as  derived  from  mythical  poetry. 

^  Cf.  Unger's  edition,  Christiania,  1862,  p.  292. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

green  glade  in  the  middle  with  a  glorious  lake  of  agreeable 
taste.  Later  on  they  come  to  another  marvelous  island,  with 
splendid  green  grass,  and  honeydew  lay  on  the  grass  [cf.  Zim- 
mer,  1889,  pp.  194,  195]. 

The  name  "  FurtSustrandir "  (marvel-strands),  as  we  shall 
see  later  (p.  357),  may  come  from  the  "  Tirib  Ingnad  "  (lands 
of  marvel)  and  "  Trag  M6r  "  (great  strand)  of  Irish  legend,  far 
in  the  western  ocean. 

When  Karlsevne  arrived  off  FurtSustrandir  he  sent  out  his 
two  Scottish  runners,  the  man  Haki  and  the  woman 
Hekja,  and  told  them  to  run  southward  and  examine 
the  condition  of  the  country  and  come  back  in  three  days. 
This  is  evidently  another  legendary  trait;  and  equally  so 
the  circumstance  that  King  Olaf  had  given  these  runners  to 
Leif  and  told  him  "  to  make  use  of  them  if  he  had  need  of  speed, 
for  they  were  swifter  than  deer."  We  know  of  many  such  fea- 
tures in  fairy  tale  and  myth.  Then,  after  the  traditional  three 
days,  the  man  and  woman  come  running  from  the  interior  of 
the  country,  one  with  grapes,  the  other  with  self-sown  wheat 
in  their  hands.  We  are  tempted  to  think  of  the  spies  Moses 
sent  into  Canaan,  with  orders  to  spy  out  the  land,  whether  it 
was  fat  or  lean,  and  who  came  back  with  a  vine  branch  and  a 
cluster  of  grapes,  which  they  had  cut  in  the  vale  of  Eshcol  (i.e., 
the  vale  of  grapes).' 

But  there  are  other  remarkable  points  about  this  legend. 
Prof.  Moltke  Moe  has  called  my  attention  to  a  striking  resem- 
blance between  it  and  the  legends  of  the  two  runners,  or  spies, 
who  accompanied  Sinclair's  march  through  Norway  in  161 2. 
They  are  called  "  wind-runners "  or  "  bloodhounds,"  or  again 
"  weather-calves  "  or  "  wind-calves  " ;  others  called  them  "  Wild 
Turks." 

"  They  were  ugly  folk  enough.  Sinklar  used  them  to  run  before  and  search 
out  news;  in  the  evening  they  came  back  with  their  reports.    They  were  swifter 

1  Cf.  also  Joshua's  two  spies,  who  by  the  advice  of  Rahab  the  harlot  con- 
cealed themselves  in  the  mountains  for  three  days,  after  which  they  descended 
and  came  to  Joshua. 

339 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

in  running  than  the  stag;  it  is  said  that  the  flesh  was  cut  out  of  their  thighs  and 
the  thick  of  their  calves.  It  is  also  said  that  they  could  follow  men's  tracks."  ^ 
We  are  told  elsewhere  that  "  these  '  Ver-Kalvann  '  ['  wind-calves  ']  were 
more  active  than  farm-dogs,  swift  as  lightning,  and  did  not  look  like  folk. 
The  flesh  was  cut  out  of  the  thick  of  their  calves,  their  thighs  and  buttocks; 
their  nostrils  were  also  slit  up.  People  thought  this  was  done  to  them  to 
make  them  so  much  lighter  to  run  around,  and  everyone  was  more  frightened 
of  them  than  of  the  Scots  themselves.  They  could  get  the  scent  of  folk  a 
long  way  off  and  could  kill  a  man  before  he  could  blow  his  nose;  they  dashed 
up  the  back  and  broke  the  necks  of  folk."  ^ 

The  trait  that  the  wind-runners  "  did  not  look  like  folk  "  is 
expressed  in  another  form  in  H.  P.  S.  Krag's  notes;  he  thinks 
that  they 

"  were  nothing  else  but  Sinclair's  bloodhounds,  which  we  may  assume  both 
from  the  description  and  from  its  being  related  of  the  one  that  was  shot  at 
Odegaard  that  it  ran  about  the  field  and  barked." 

Something  similar  also  occurs  about  the  runners  in  Wineland 
in  a  late  form  of  the  legend  of  Karlsevne's  voyage,  where  we 
read  that 

"  he  sailed  from  Greenland  south-westward  until  the  condition  of  the  country 
got  better  and  better;  he  found  and  visited  many  places  that  have  never  been 
found  since;  he  found  also  some  Skrselings;  these  people  are  called  in  some 
books  Lapps.  In  one  place  he  got  two  creatures  [skepnur]  more  like  apes 
than  men,  whom  he  called  Hake  and  Hekja;  they  ran  as  fast  as  greyhounds 
and  had  few  clothes."  [MS.  A.  M.,  old  no.  770c,  new  no.  1892,  3;  cf.  Rafn: 
"  Antiquitates  Americanae,"  1837,  p.  196.] 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  addition  that  in  the  Flateyjarbok's 
saga  of  the  Wineland  voyages  no  runners  appear,  but  on  the 
other  hand,  in  the  tale  of  Leif's  voyage,  which  has  features 
in  common  with  Karlsevne's,  there  is  a  "  Southman " 
("  SutSrmaSr,"    most    frequently    used    of    Germans)  ^     of    the 

1  Cf.  Andreas  Austlid.  "  Sinklar-Soga,"  p.  21  (Oslo,  1899).  H.  P.  S.  Krag: 
"  Sagn  samlede  i  Gudbrandsdalen  on  slaget  ved  Kringlen  den  26de  august 
1612,"  p.  19  (Kristiania,  1838). 

=  Ivar  Kleiven:  "I  gamle  Daagaa,  Forteljingo  og  Bygda-Minne  fraa  Vaa- 
gaa,"  p.  63  (Kristiania,  1907)- 

3  We  are  told  that  he  talked  in  "  ^yrsku."  Similarity  of  sound  may  here 
raise  the  question  whether  he  was  not  originally  supposed  to  be  a  Turk  (cf. 
the  Wild  Turks  above),  to  which  the  name  itself  would  point. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

name  of  "  Tyrker,"  who  was  the  first  to  find  the  wild  vine  in  the 
woods  (like  Karlsevne's  runners)  and  intoxicated  himself  by  eat- 
ing the  grapes.^  As  Moltke  Moe  observes,  there  is  a  remark- 
able resemblance  between  the  rare  name  Tyrker  and  the  fact 
that  Sinclair's  runners  were  called  Wild  Turks. 

Both  in  the  legend  of  Karlsevne  and  in  that  of  Sinclair, 
the  two  runners  are  connected  with  Scots  or  Scotland.  One 
is  therefore  inclined  to  suppose  that  some  piece  of  Celtic 
folk-lore  is  the  common  source  of  both.  Now  there  is  a 
Scottish  mythical  creature  called  a  "  water-calf " ;  and  the 
unintelligible  Norwegian  name  "  weather-calf "  or  "  wind- 
calf  "  ("  veirkalv ")  may  well  be  thought  a  corruption  of 
this.  It  is  true  that  this  creature  inhabits  lakes,  but  it  also 
goes  upon  dry  land,  and  has  fabulous  speed  and  the  power 
of  scenting  things  far  off.  It  can  also  transform  itself  into 
different  shapes,  but  always  preserves  something  of  its  ani- 
mal form. 

That  the  runners  in  Eric's  Saga  have  become  a  man  and 
woman  may  be  due  to  a  natural  connection  with  Thor's 
swift-footed  companions,  Tjalve  and  Roskva.  But  there 
seems  here  to  be  another  possible  connection,  which  Moltke 
Moe  has  suggested  to  me.  The  strange  garment  they  wore 
is  called  in  one  MS.  "  kiafal "  and  in  another  "  biafal." 
No  word  completely  corresponding  to  this  is  known  in  Celtic; 
but  there  is  a  modem  Irish  word  "  cabhail "  (pronounced 
"caval"^"a  body  of  a  shirt"),  which  shows  so  much 
similarity  both  in  meaning  and  sound  that  there  seems 
undoubtedly  to  be  a  connection  here.  That  "  caval," 
1  It  is  noteworthy  that  we  are  told  of  this  Tyrker  that  he  was  "  brattleitr  " 
(i.e.,  with  a  flat,  abrupt  face) ;  this  is  the  only  passage  in  old  Norse  literature 
where  this  rare  expression  is  used.  The  only  context  in  which  Moltke  Moe 
has  found  it  used  in  our  time  is  in  connection  with  the  tale  of  the  youngest  son 
(Askeladden)  in  Saetersdal  [cf.  also  H.  Ross],  where  it  is  said  that  Oskefis 
was  also  "  brasslaitte  "  (Ross  thinks  it  means  here  "  stiff  in  his  bearing,  full  of 
self-esteem,  self-sufficient ").  Can  it  be  merely  a  coincidence  that  this  rare 
word  is  used  of  none  other  than  the  fairy-tale  hero  who  is  favored  by  fortune, 
and  of  the  lucky  finder  of  the  wild  grapes,  by  eating  which  he  intoxicates  him- 
self. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

corrupted  to  "  kiafal "  (through  the  influence  of  similar- 
sounding  names?),  has  been  transformed  into  "  biafal " 
may  be  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Norse  "  bjalfi "  or 
"bjalbi"  (=  a  fur  garment  without  sleeves).  As  their 
costume  plays  such  an  important  part  in  the  description  of 
the  runners,  and  special  stress  is  laid  upon  the  Celtic  word  for 
it,  it  is  probable  that  this  word  was  originally  used  as  a  name 
for  the  runners  themselves — in  legend  and  epic  poetry  there 
are  many  examples  of  people  being  named  from  their  dress. 
But  gradually  the  Celtic  word  used  as  a  name  has  been  re- 
placed by  the  corresponding  old  Norse  "  hakuU  "  (or  "  hokuU  " 
=  sleeveless  cloak  open  at  the  sides ;  cf .  "  messe-hagel," 
chasuble),  and  its  feminine  derivative  "  hekla "  (=  sleeve- 
less cloak,  with  or  without  a  hood).  The  use  of  these  two 
words  of  masculine  and  feminine  gender  may  be  due  to 
conceptions  of  them  as  man  and  woman,  derived  from  Tjalve 
and  Roskva.  In  course  of  time  it  was  natural  that  a 
personal  name  formed  from  the  costume,  like  HakuU,  should 
easily  be  replaced  by  a  real  man's  name  of  similar  sound, 
like  "  Haki,"  specially  known  in  legend  and  epic  poetry  as 
a  name  of  sea-kings,  berserkers,  and  troll-children.  Then 
"  Hekja "  was  derived  from  "  Haki,"  in  the  same  way 
as  "  Hekla  "  from  "  Hakull."  Hekja,  as  a  name,  is  not  met  with 
elsewhere.^ 

That  the  whole  of  this  story  of  the  runners  in  the  Saga  of 
Eric  the  Red  has  been  borrowed  from  elsewhere  appears 
also   from   its  being  badly   fitted   in;   for  the   narrative   of  the 

1  Prof.  Moltke  Moe  has  called  my  attention  to  resemblances  to  these  runners 
in  the  Welsh  tale  of  "  Kulhwch  and  Olwen."  In  this  there  occur  two  swift- 
footed  knights,  and  Queen  Gwenhwyvar's  two  servants  (Yskyrdav  and 
Yscudydd)  "as  swift  as  thought,"  and  finally  Arthur's  wonderfully  swift 
hound  "Cavall"  (in  older  MSS.  "Cabal")  [cf.  Heyman,  Mabinogion,  1906, 
pp.  80,  82,  loi,  103;  J.  Loth,  Les  Mabinogion,  i.  and  ii.].  Of  Tjalve  it  is  re- 
lated in  the  Snorra-Edda  that  he  was  "  fothvatastr "  (the  swiftest),  and  in 
Utgard  he  ran  a  race  with  thought  (Hugi).  This  trait  is  Irish,  as  will  be 
shown  by  Von  Sydow  (1910).  It  resembles  the  two  servants  ("  swift  as 
thought ")  in  the  Welsh  legend.  The  runners  in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red 
are  also  Celtic,  and  this  in  itself  points  to  a  connection. 


WINELAND  THE  GOOD 

saga  continues  without  taking  any  notice  of  the  finding  of 
the  sure  tokens  of  Wineland:  the  self-sown  wheat  and  the 
vine;  and  in  the  following  spring  there  is  even  a  dispute  as 
to  the  direction  in  which  the  country  is  to  be  sought. 
Furthermore,  after  the  discoveries  of  the  runners,  Karlsevne 
continues  to  sail  southward,  at  first,  the  same  autumn,  to 
Straumsfjord,  and  then  still  'further  south  the  following  sum- 
mer, before  he  arrives  at  the  country  of  the  wheat  and 
grapes  that  the  runners  had  reached  in  a  day  and  a  half  in  a 
roadless  land. 

The  description  of  the  stay  in  Straumsfjord  also  contains 
purely  mythical  features,  such  as  Thorhall  the  Hunter's  being 
absent  for  the  stereotyped  three  days  ("doegr"),  and  having, 
when  they  find  him,  practiced  magic  arts  with  the  Red- 
Beard  (Thor),  as  the  result  of  which  a  whale  is  driven  ashore 
(see  p.  325).  There  is  further  a  striking  resemblance  between 
the  description  of  Thorhall's  state  when  found  and  that  of 
Tyrker  after  he  had  eaten  the  grapes.  When,  in  Eric's 
Saga,  they  sought  and  found  Thorhall  on  a  steep  mountain 
crag, 

"he  lay  gazing  up  into  the  air  with  wide-open  mouth  and  nostrils,  scratching 
and  pinching  himself  and  muttering  something.  They  asked  why  he  lay  there. 
He  answered  that  that  did  not  concern  anybody,  and  told  them  not  to  meddle 
with  it;  he  had  for  the  most  part  lived  so,  said  he,  that  they  had  no  need 
to  trouble  about  him.  They  asked  him  to  come  home  with  them,  and  he 
did  so." 

In  the  Flateyjarbok's  "  Gronlendinga-f>attr  "  Tyrker  was  lost 

in  the  woods,  and  when  Leif  and  his  men  went  in  search  and 

found  him  again,  he,  too,  behaved  strangely. 

"  First  he  spoke  for  a  long  time  in  '  I'yrsku,'  and  rolled  his  eyes  many  ways 
and  twisted  his  mouth;  but  they  could  not  make  out  what  he  said.  After  a 
while  he  said  in  Norse,  '  I  did  not  go  much  farther,  and  yet  I  have  a  new  dis- 
covery to  tell  of;  I  have  found  vines  and  grapes  [vinviS  ok  vinber].'" 

This  shows  how  features  taken  from  legends  originally 
altogether  different  are  mingled  together  in  these  sagas,  in 
order  to  fill  out  the  description;  and  it  shows,  too,  how  the 
same  tale  may  take  entirely  different  forms.     Of  Tyrker   we 

343 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

hear  further  that  "  he  was  '  brattleitr '  [with  a  flat  face  and 
abrupt  forehead],  had  fugitive  eyes,  was  freckled  ['  smaskitligr '] 
in  the  face,  small  of  stature  and  puny,  but  skillful  in  all  kinds 
of  dexterity."  Thorhall,  on  the  other  hand,  "was  tall  of 
stature,  dark  and  troll-like,"  etc.  (see  p.  320),  but  he  was 
also  master  of  many  crafts,  was  well  acquainted  with  the  unin- 
habited regions,  and  altogether  had  qualities  different  from  most 
people.  Both  had  long  been  with  Eric  the  Red.  There  can 
scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  these  two  legendary  figures,  perhaps 
originally  derived  from  wholly  different  spheres,  have  been 
blended  together. 

The  whale  that  is  driven  ashore  and  that  they  feed  on 
resembles  the  great  fish  that  is  cast  ashore  and  that  the 
Irish  saint  Brandan  and  his  companions  live  on  in  the  tale 
of  his  wonderful  voyage  (see  below).  This  resemblance  is 
confirmed  by  the  statement  in  the  Icelandic  story  that  no 
one  knew  what  kind  of  whale  it  was,  not  even  Karlsevne, 
who  had  great  experience  of  whales.  There  are,  of  course, 
no  whales  on  the  north-eastern  coast  of  America  that  are  not 
also  found  on  the  coasts  of  Greenland  and  Iceland;  the 
incident  therefore  appears  fictitious.  The  great  whale  in 
the  legend  of  Brandan,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  fabulous 
monster.  There  is  this  distinction,  it  is  true,  that  Karlsevne's 
people  fall  ill  from  eating  the  whale,*  while  it  saves  the  lives 
of  the  Irish  voyagers;  but  in  both  cases  it  is  driven  ashore 
after  God,  or  a  god,  has  been  invoked  in  their  need,  and 
disappears  again  immediately  (in  the  tale  of  Brandan  it  is 
devoured  by  wild  beasts;  in  the  saga  it  is  thrown  over  the 
cliff).  This  difference  can  easily  be  explained  by  the  whale 
in  the  Norse  story  having  been  sent  by  a  heathen  god,  so  that 
it  was  sacrilege  to  eat  of  it.  In  the  tale  of  Brandan  the 
whale  is  perhaps  derived  from  Oriental  legends  [cf.  De  Goeje, 
1891,  p.  63] ;  it  may,  however,  be  a  common  Northern 
feature. 

1  In  the  "  Gronlendinga-J'attr "  the  whale  they  found  was  both  large  and 
good;  they  cut  it  in  pieces,  and  "they  had  no  lack  of  food." 

344 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

When  it  is  stated  of  Straumsfjord  that  there  were  places 
where  eggs  could  be  gathered,  and  of  Straumsey  that  "  there 
were  so  many  birds  that  one  could  scarcely  put  one's  foot  down 
between  the  eggs,"  this  is  evidently  an  entirely  Northern  fea- 
ture, brought  in  to  decorate  the  tale,  and  brought  in  so  infe- 
licitously  that  they  are  made  to  find  all  this  mass  of  eggs 
there  in  the  autumn  (!)  when  they  arrive.  If  Straumsfjord 
was  in  Nova  Scotia  there  could  not  be  eider-ducks  nor 
gulls  either  ^  in  sufficient  number  to  form  breeding- 
grounds  of  importance,  and  among  sea-birds  one  would  be  more 
inclined  to  think  of  terns,  as  Prof.  R.  Collett  has  suggested  to 
me.  As  the  coast  is  not  described  as  one  with  steep  cliffs,  and 
there  is  mention  of  stepping  between  the  eggs,  auks,  guillemots, 
and  similar  sea-birds  are  out  of  the  question,  even  if  they  oc- 
curred so  far  south. 

But  then  comes  the  most  important  part  of  the  saga,  the  de- 
scription of  the  country  itself,  where  grew  self-sown  fields  of 
wheat,  and  vines  on  the  hills,  where  no  snow  fell  and  the  cattle 
were  out  the  whole  winter,  where  the  streams  and  the  sea  teemed 
with  fish  and  the  woods  were  full  of  deer. 

Isidore  says  [in  the  "  Etymologiarum,"  xiv.  6,  8]  of  the  For- 
tunate Isles: 

"  The  Insulae  Fortunatae  denote  by  their  name  that  they  produce  all  good 
things,  as  though  fortunate  [felices]  and  blessed  with  fertility  of  vegetation. 
For  of  their  own  nature  they  are  rich  in  valuable  fruits  [poma,  literally  tree- 
fruit  or  apples].  The  mountain-ridges  are  clothed  with  self-grown  [fortu- 
ites]  vines,  and  corn-fields  [messis  =  that  which  is  to  be  cut]  and  vege- 
tables are  common  as  grass  [i.e.  grow  wild  like  grass,  are  self-sown];  thence 
comes  the  error  of  the  heathen,  and  that  profane  poetry  regarded  them  as 
Paradise.  They  lie  in  the  ocean  on  the  left  side  of  Mauritania  [Morocco] 
nearest  to  the  setting  sun,  and  they  are  divided  from  one  another  by  sea  that 
lies  between."     He  also  mentions  the  Gorgades,  and  the  Hesperides. 

1  According  to  information  given  by  Prof.  R.  Collett,  the  Larus  argentatus 
is  the  only  species  of  gull  that  occurs  in  Nova  Scotia  in  sufficiently  large  num- 
bers to  make  it  seem  probable  that  it  might  breed  extensively  on  an  island. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  these  close-lying  eggs  are  derived  from  the  white  and 
red  "scaltae"  (?)  which  covered  the  Anchorites'  Isle  in  the  "  Navigatio 
Brandani"  (see  below  p.  360)? 

345 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

These  ideas  of  the  Fortunate  Isles  were  widely  current  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  In  the  English  work,  "  Polychronicon,"  by  Ra- 
nulph  Higden,  of  the  fourteenth  century,  Isidor's  description  took 
the  following  form: 

"  A  good  climate  have  the  Insulae  Fortunatae  that  lie  in  the  western  ocean, 
which  were  regarded  by  the  heathen  as  Paradise  by  reason  of  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  and  of  the  temperate  climate.  For  there  the  mountain  ridges  are 
clothed  with  self-grown  vines,  and  cornfields  and  vegetables  are  common  as 
grass  [i.e.,  grow  wild].  Consequently  they  are  called  on  account  of  the  rich 
vegetation  '  Fortunatae,'  that  is  to  say  '  felices '  [happy,  fertile],  for  there  are 
trees  that  grow  as  high  as  140  feet     .    .    ." 

The  resemblance  between  this  description  and  that  of 
Wineland  is  so  close  that  it  cannot  be  explained  away  as 
fortuitous;  the  most  prominent  features  are  common  to 
both:  the  self-sown  cornfields,  the  self-grown  vines  on  the 
hills,  and  the  lofty  trees  (cf.  Pliny,  below,  p.  348)  which  are 
already  present  in  the  narrative  of  Leif's  voyage  (see  above, 
p.  317).  If  we  go  back  to  antiquity  and  examine  the  general 
ideas  of  the  Fortunate  Land  or  the  Fortunate  Isles  out  in  the 
ocean  in  the  west,  we  find  yet  more  points  of  resemblance. 
Diodorus  [v.  19,  20]  describes  a  land  opposite  Africa,  in  the 
middle  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  as  fertile  and  mountainous, 
but  also  to  a  large  extent  flat.  (Wineland  also  had  hills 
and  lowlands.)  It  invites  to  amusements  and  delights.'  The 
mountainous  country  has  thick  forests  and  all  kinds  of  fruitful 
trees,  and  many  streams;  there  is  excellent  hunting  with  game 
of  all  sorts,  big  and  small,  and  the  sea  is  full  of  fish  (precisely 
as  Wineland).  Moreover,  the  air  is  extremely  mild  (as  in 
Wineland),  and  there  is  plenty  of  fruit  the  whole  year  round, 
etc.  The  land  was  not  known  in  former  times,  but  some  Phoe- 
nicians on  a  voyage  along  the  African  coast  were  overtaken  by 
a  storm,  were  driven  about  the  ocean  for  many  days,  until  they 
came  thither  (like  Leif). 

It  is  said  of  Wineland,  in  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  that 

1  Cf.  Karlsevne's  people,  who  on  arrival  rested  for  half  a  month  and  amused 
themselves. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

"  no  snow  at  all  fell  there,  and  the  cattle  were  out  [in  winter] 
and  fed  themselves,"  and  in  the  Flateyjarbok  we  read  that  "  there 
was  no  frost  in  the  winter,  and  the  grass  withered  little."  These, 
we  see,  are  pure  impossibilities.  As  early  as  the  Odyssey  [iv. 
566]  it  is  said  of  the  Elysian  Fields  in  the  west  on  the  borders 
of  the  earth : 

"  There  is  never  snow,  never  vvinter  nor  storm,  nor  streaming  rain. 
But  Ocean  ever  sends  forth  the  light  breath  of  the  west  wind 
To  bring  refreshment  to  men." 

In  the  early  civilization  of  Babylon  and  Eg5^t  this  fortu- 
nate land  seems  to  have  been  imagined  as  lying  in  the 
direction  of  the  rising  sun;  but  the  ideas  are  always 
the  same.  An  ancient  Egyptian  myth  puts  "  Aalu "  or 
"  Hotep "  (:^  place  of  food,  land  of  eating),  which  is  the 
abode  of  bliss  and  fortune,  far  in  the  east,  where  light  conquers 
darkness. 

"  Both  texts  and  pictures  bear  witness  to  the  beauty  which  pervades  this 
abode  of  life;  it  was  a  Paradise  as  splendid  as  could  be  imagined,  'the  store- 
house of  the  great  god';  where  'the  corn  grows  seven  cubits  high.'  It  was  a 
land  of  eternal  life;  there,  according  to  the  oldest  Egyptian  texts,  the  god  of 
light,  and  with  him  the  departed,  acquire  strength  to  renew  themselves  and  to 
arise  from  the  dead."  1 

In  the  same  colors  as  these,  the  "  Odyssey  "  describes  many 
fortunate  lands  and  islands,  such  as  the  nymph  Calypso's 
beautiful  island,  Ogygia,  far  in  the  west  of  the  ocean; 
and  again  "  Scheria's  delightful  island"  [vii.  79,  f.],  where 
the  Phsacians,  "  a  people  as  happy  as  gods,"  dwell  "  far 
away  amid  the  splashing  waves  of  the  ocean,"  where  the 
mild  west  wind,  both  winter  and  summer,  ever  causes  the 
fruit  trees  and  vines  to  blossom  and  bear  fruit,  and  where 
all  kinds  of  herbs  grow  all  the  year  round  (remark  the  simi- 
larity with  Isidore's  description).  The  fortunate  isle  of  Syria, 
far  in  the  western  ocean,  is  also  mentioned  [xv.  402] : 

1 W.  Brede  Kristensen:  "  Een  of  twe  boomen  in  hat  Paradijsverhaal." 
Theologisch  Tijdschrift,  1908,  p.  218. 

347 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

"North  of  Ortygia,  towards  the  region  where  the  sun  sets; 
Rich  in  oxen  and  sheep,  and  clothed  with  vines  and  wheat," 

where  the  people  live  free  from  want  and  sickness.  These  are  the 
same  ideas  which  were  afterwards  transferred  to  the  legend  of 
the  Hyperboreans  (cf.  pp.  15,  f.).^  It  is  natural  that  among  the 
Greeks  wine  and  the  vine  took  a  prominent  place  in  these  descrip- 
tions. In  post-Homeric  times  the  "  Isles  of  the  Blest "  (Maxdpmv 
vi;<joc)  are  described  by  Hesiod  (and  subsequently  by  Pindar)  as 
lying  in  the  western  ocean. 

"  There  they  live  free  from  care  in  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  by  the  deep- 
flowing  ocean,  the  fortunate  heroes  to  whom  the  earth  gives  honey-sweet 
fruits  three  times  a  year." 

It  is  these  ideas — perhaps  originally  derived  from  the  Orient 
— that  have  developed  into  the  Insulae  Fortunatae. 

These  islands  are  described  by  many  writers  of  later  an- 
tiquity. Pliny  says  [Nat.  Hist.,  vi.  32  (37)]  that  according  to 
some  authors  there  lie  to  the  west  of  Africa 

"  the  Fortunate  Isles  and  many  others,  whose  number  and  distance  are  like- 
wise given  by  Sebosus.  According  to  him  the  distance  of  the  island  of  Junonia 
from  Gades  is  750,000  paces;  it  is  an  equal  distance  from  this  island  westward 
to  Pluvialia  and  Capraria.  In  Pluvialia  there  is  said  to  be  no  water  but  that 
which  the  rain  brings.  250,000  paces  south-west  of  it  and  over  against  the  left 
side  of  Mauritania  [Morocco]  lie  the  Fortunate  Isles,  of  which  one  is  called 
Invallis  on  account  of  its  elevated  form,  the  other  Planaria  on  account  of  its 
flatness.  Invallis  has  a  circumference  of  300,000  paces,  and  the  trees  on  it  are 
said  to  attain  a  height  of  140  feet." 

But,  as  usual,  Pliny  uncritically  confuses  statements  from 
various  sources,  and  he  here  adds  information  collected  by 
the  African  king  Juba  about  the  Fortunate  Isles.  According 
to  this  they  were  six  in  number:  Ombrios,  two  islands  of 
Junonia,  besides  Capraria,  Nivaria,  and  Canaria,  so  called 
from  the  many  large  dogs  there,  of  which  two  were  brought 
to    Juba.     Solinus    mentions    in    one    place    [c.    23,    10]    that 

1  Of  less  importance  in  this  connection  is  the  question  how  far  these  names 
of  islands  in  the  Odyssey  were  originally  connected  with  islands  in  the  Medi- 
terranean [cf.  V.  Berard,  1902,  i.] ;  in  the  description  in  the  poem  they  have 
in  any  case  become  wholly  mythical. 

348 


WINELAND   THE  GOOD 

there  are  three  Fortunatae  Insulae,  but  in  another  place 
[c.  56]  he  gives  Juba's  statement  from  Pliny.  That  these 
islands  were  located  to  the  west  of  Africa  is  certainly  due  to 
the  Phoenicians'  and  Carthaginians'  knowledge  of  the  Canary 
Islands,  and  Ptolemy  also  places  them  here  (see  above, 
p.  117).  Strabo  [i.  3]  thinks  that  the  Isles  of  the  Blest  lay 
west  of  the  extremity  of  Maurusia  (Morocco),  in  the  region 
where  the  ends  of  Maurusia  and  Iberia  meet.  Their  name 
shows  that  they  lie  near  to  the  holy  region  (i.e.,  the  Elysian 
Fields). 

In  his  biography  of  the  eminent  Roman  general  Sertorius 
("  imperator  "  in  Spain  for  several  years,  died  in  72  B.C.),  Plu- 
tarch also  mentions  the  Isles  of  the  Blest.  He  tells  us  that 
when  Sertorius  landed  as  an  exile  on  the  south-west  coast  of 
Spain  (Andalusia), 

"  he  found  there  some  sailors  newly  arrived  from  the  Atlantic  Isles.  These  are 
two  in  number,  separated  only  by  a  narrow  strait,  and  they  are  10,000  stadia 
[1000  geographical  miles]  from  the  African  coast.  They  are  called  the  '  Isles 
of  the  Blest.'  Rain  seldom  falls  there,  and  when  it  does  so,  it  is  in  modera- 
tion; but  they  usually  have  mild  winds,  which  spread  such  abundance  of  dew 
that  the  soil  is  not  only  good  for  sowing  and  planting,  but  produces  of  itself 
the  most  excellent  fruit,  and  in  such  abundance  that  the  inhabitants  have 
nothing  else  to  do  but  to  abandon  themselves  to  the  enjoyment  of  repose. 
The  air  is  always  fresh  and  wholesome,  through  the  favorable  temperature 
of  the  seasons  and  their  imperceptible  transition.  ...  So  that  it  is  gen- 
erally assumed,  even  among  the  barbarians,  that  these  are  the  Elysian  Fields 
and  the  habitations  of  the  blest,  which  Homer  has  described  with  all  the  magic 
of  poetry.  When  Sertorius  heard  of  these  marvels  he  had  a  strong  desire  to 
settle  in  these  islands,  where  he  might  live  in  perfect  peace  and  far  from  the 
evils  of  tyranny  and  war." 

But  this  remarkable  man  soon  had  fresh  warlike  undertak- 
ings to  think  about,  so  that  he  never  went  there.  It  appears, 
too,  from  the  fragments  that  have  come  down  to  us  of  Sallust's 
"  Histories,"  ^  that  Sertorius  did  not  visit  these  islands,  but  only 
wished  to  do  so.     In  fragment  102  we  read: 

"  It  is   related  that  he  undertook  a  voyage  far  out  into  the  ocean,"  and 
Maurenbrecher  adds  that   a  scholium  to   Horace   [Epod.   16,  42]    says.  "The 

1  C.   Sallusti   Crispi  Historiarum   Reliquiae.     Ed.   Bertoldus   Maurenbrecher, 
Lipsias,  1891,  pp.  43,  f. 

.      J49 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

ocean  wherein  are  the  Insulae  Fortunatae,  to  which  Sallust  in  his  '  Histories ' 
says  that  Sertorius  wished  to  retire  when  he  had  been  vanquished." 

But  in  L.  Annaeus  Florus,  who  lived  under  Hadrian  (i  17-138 
A.D.),  we  read  [iii.  22]  :' 

"An  exile  and  a  wanderer  on  account  of  his  banishment,  this  man  [i.e. 
Sertorius]  of  the  greatest  but  most  fatal  qualities  filled  seas  and  lands  with 
his  misfortunes:  now  in  Africa,  now  in  the  Balearic  Isles  he  sought  fortune, 
was  sent  out  into  the  ocean  and  reached  the  Fortunate  Isles:  finally  he  raised 
Spain  to  conflict." 

It  thus  appears  that  by  Florus's  time  the  idea  had  shaped 
itself  that  Sertorius  really  had  sought  and  found  these 
islands;  which,  besides,  in  part  at  all  events,  were  thought 
to  be  the  same  as  those  said  to  have  been  already  discovered 
by  the  Carthaginian  Hanno  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  about 
500  B.C. 

Of  great  interest  is  the  description  which  Horace  gives  in  his 
Epodes  [xvi.  39  f.]  of  the  Fortunate  Isles  in  the  ocean,  though 
he  does  not  mention  them  by  name.  He  exhorts  the  Romans, 
who  were  suffering  from  the  civil  wars,  to  abandon  the  coast  of 
Italy  (the  Etruscan  coast)  and  sail  thither,  away  from  all  their 
miseries.  Lord  Lytton  ^  gave  the  following  metrical  translation 
of  the  poem: 

"  Ye  in  whom  manhood  lives,  cease  woman-wailings. 
Wing  the  sail  far  beyond  Etruscan  shores. 
Lo!  where  awaits  an  all-circumfluent  ocean — 
Fields,  the  Blest  Fields  we  seek,  the  Golden  Isles 
Where  teems  a  land  that  never  knows  the  plowshare— 
Where,  never  needing  pruner,  laughs  the  vine — 
Where  the  dusk  fig  adorns  the  stem  it  springs  from, 
And  the  glad  olive  ne'er  its  pledge  belies — 
There  from  the  creviced  ilex  wells  the  honey; 
There,  down  the  hillside  bounding  light,  the  rills 
Dance  with  free  foot,  whose  fall  is  heard  in  music; 
There,  without  call,  the  she-goat  yields  her  milk. 
And  back  to  browse,  with  unexhausted  udders, 

1  L.  Annaus  Florus,  Epitome  rerum  Romanum,  ex  editione  J.  Fr.  Fischeri, 
Londini,  1822.     Vol.  i.  pp.  278,  f. 

-Lytton:  The  Odes  and  Epodes  of  Horace.     London,  1869. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Wanders  the  friendly  flock;  no  hungry  bear 
Growls  round  the  sheepfold  in  the  starry  gloaming, 
Nor  high  with  rippling  vipers  heaves  the  soil. 
These,  and  yet  more  of  marvel,  shall  we  witness. 
We,  for  felicity  reserved;  how  ne'er 
Dark  Eurus  sweeps  the  fields  with  flooding  rain-storm. 
Nor  rich  seeds  parch  within  the  sweltering  glebe. 
Either  extreme  the  King  of  Heaven  has  tempered. 
Thither  ne'er  rowed  the  oar  of  Argonaut, 
The  impure  Colchian  never  there  had  footing. 
There  Sidon's  trader  brought  no  lust  of  gain; 
No  weary  toil  there  anchored  with  Ulysses; 
Sickness  is  known  not;  on  the  tender  lamb 
No  ray  falls  baneful  from  one  star  in  heaven. 
When  Jove's  decree  alloyed  the  golden  age, 
He  kept  these  shores  for  one  pure  race  secreted; 
For  all  beside  the  golden  age  grew  brass 
Till  the  last  centuries  hardened  to  the  iron. 
Whence  to  the  pure  in  heart  a  glad  escape. 
By    favor  of  my  prophet-strain  is  given." 

Rendered  into  prose,  Horace's  poem  will  run  somewhat  as 
follows : 

"  Ye  who  have  manliness,  away  with  effeminate  grief,  and  fly  beyond  the 
Etruscan  shore.  There  awaits  us  the  all-circumfluent  ocean:  Let  us  steer 
towards  fields,  happy  fields  and  rich  islands,  where  the  untilled  earth  gives 
corn  every  year,  and  the  vine  uncut  [i.e.,  unpruned,  growing  wild]  continu- 
ally flourishes,  and  the  never-faihng  branch  of  the  olive-tree  blossoms  forth, 
and  the  fig  adorns  its  tree,  honey  flows  from  the  hollow  ilex,  the  light  stream 
bounds  down  from  the  high  mountain  on  murmuring  foot,  etc." 

We  thus  find  here  in  Horace  precisely  the  same  ideas  of  the 
Elysian  Fields  or  the  Fortunate  Isles  that  occur  later  in  Isidore 
and  in  the  saga's  description  of  the  fortunate  Wineland;  es- 
pecially striking  are  the  expressions  about  the  corn  that  each 
year  grows  wild  (on  the  unplowed  earth)  and  the  wild  vine 
which  continually  yields  fruit  (blossoms,  "fioret"). 

These  myths  of  the  Fortunate  Isles — originally  derived  from  conceptions  of 
the  happy  existence  of  the  elect  after  death  (in  the  Elysian  Fields),  for  which 
reason  they  were  called  by  the  Greeks  the  Isles  of  the  Blest — have  also,  of 
course,  been  blended  within  Indian  myths  of  "  Uttara  Kuru."  Among  the 
Greeks  they  were  sometimes  the  subject  of  humorous  productions;  several 
such  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  are  preserved  in  Athenasus.     Thus  Teleclides 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

says:  "Mortals  live  there  peacefully  and  free  from  fear  and  sickness,  and  all 
that  they  need  offers  itself  spontaneously.  The  gutter  flows  with  wine,  wheat 
and  barley  bread  fight  before  the  mouths  of  the  people  for  the  favor  of  be- 
ing swallowed,  the  fish  come  into  the  house,  offer  themselves  and  serve  them- 
selves up,  a  stream  of  soup  bears  warm  pieces  of  meat  on  its  waves,"  etc.  Cf. 
also  Lucian's  description  of  the  Isle  of  the  Blest  in  Vera  Historia  (second  cen- 
tury A.D.) :  "  The  vines  bear  fruit  twelve  times  a  year  .  .  .  instead  of  wheat 
the  ears  put  forth  little  loaves  like  sponges,"  etc.  [Wieland,  1789,  iv.  p.  196]. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  tale  of  the  land  of  desire  was  widespread:  in  Spain 
it  took  the  name  of  "  Tierra  del  Pipiripao  "  or  "  Dorado  "  (the  land  of  gold), 
or  again  "  La  Isla  de  Jauja,"  said  to  have  been  discovered  by  the  ship  of  Gen- 
eral Don  Fernando.  In  it  are  costly  foods,  rich  stuffs  and  cloths  in  the  fields 
and  on  the  trees,  lakes  and  rivers  of  Malmsey  and  other  wines,  springs  of 
brandy,  pools  of  lemonade,  a  mountain  of  cheese,  another  Df  snow,  which 
cools  one  in  summer  and  warms  in  winter,  etc.  In  the  Germanic  countries 
this  took  the  form  of  the  legend  of  Schlaraffenland.'  This  mythical  country 
has  in  Norway  become  "  Fyldeholmen  "  (i.e.,  the  island  of  drinking),-  which 
shows  that  to  the  Norwegians  of  later  days  wine  or  spirits  were  the  most 
important  feature  in  the  description  of  the  land  of  desire,  as  the  wine  was 
to  the  ancient  Norsemen  in  the  conception  of  Wineland. 

To  sum  up,  it  appears  to  me  clear  that  the  saga's 
description  of  Wineland  must  in  its  essential  features  be 
derived  from  the  myth  of  the  Insulae  Fortunatae.  The 
representations  of  it  might  be  taken  directly  from  Isidore, 
who  was  much  read  in  the  Middle  Ages,  certainly  in  Iceland 
(where  a  partial  translation  of  his  work  was  made)  and  in 
Norway  (he  is  often  quoted  in  the  "  King's  Mirror"  ),  or  orally 
from  other  old  authorities,  who  gave  still  more  detailed 
descriptions  of  these  islands.  But  the  difficulty  is  that  the 
name    of    Wineland,    connected    with    the    ideas    of    the    self- 

1  Cf.  Johannes  Peschel,  1878.  Moltke  Moe  has  called  my  attention  to  this 
essay;  but,  as  he  says,  Peschel  is  certainly  wrong  in  assuming  that  ancient 
notions  like  that  of  Schlaraffenland  are  the  originals  from  which  the  ideas  of 
the  happy  abodes  of  the  departed,  the  Isles  of  the  Blest  (the  Elysian  Fields) 
have  been  developed.     The  reverse,  is,  of  course,  the  case. 

=  Cf.  J.  N.  Wilse:  Beskrivelse  over  Spydeberg  Praestegjaeld.  Christiania, 
1779-1780.  In  the  appended  Norwegian  vocabulary,  p.  xiii. :  Fyldeholmen  = 
Schlaraferiland.  I.  Aasen  [1873]  h^s  "  Fylleholm  "  in  the  phrase  "go  to  Fylle- 
holm"  (  =  go  on  a  drinking  bout),  from  Sogn,  and  other  places.  This  may  be 
derived  from  the  same  mythical  country.  H.  Ross  (1895)  gives  "Fylleholm" 
from  Smalenene.     From  this  it  looks  as  if  the  idea  was  widely  spread  in  Norway. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

grown  vine  and  the  unsown  wheat,  is  already  found  in  Adam 
of  Bremen  (circa  1070,  see  above,  pp.  195  f.).  We  might 
therefore  suppose  that  it  was  his  mention  of  the  country 
which  formed  the  basis  of  the  Icelandic  representation  of  it, 
although  his  fourth  book  (the  description  of  the  isles  of  the 
North)  seems  otherwise  to  have  been  little  known  in  the 
North  at  that  time;  but  here  again  the  difficulty  presents 
itself  that  the  later  description,  that  of  the  saga,  is  more 
developed  and  includes  several  features  which  agree  with  the 
classical  conceptions,  but  which  are  not  yet  found  in  Adam 
of  Bremen.  I  think  therefore  that  the  matter  may  stand 
thus,  that  "  Vinland  hit  GoSa "  was  the  Norsemen's  name 
for  "  Insulae  Fortunatae,"  and  was  in  a  way  a  translation 
thereof;  and  oral  tales  about  the  country — based  on  Isidore 
and  later  on  other  sources  as  well — may  have  formed  the 
foundation  of  the  statements  both  in  Adam  and  in  Icelandic 
literature.  In  the  latter,  then,  an  ever-increasing  number  of  fea- 
tures from  the  classical  conceptions  have  crystallized  upon  the 
nucleus,  when  once  it  was  formed,  especially  through  the  cleri- 
cal, classically  educated  saga  writers. 

As  Norway,  and  still  more  Iceland  (cf.  pp.  167,  258),  were 
closely  connected  in  ancient  days  with  Ireland,  and  as  Norse 
literature  in  many  ways  shows  traces  of  Irish  influence,  one 
is  disposed  to  think  that  the  ideas  of  Wineland  may  first 
have  reached  Iceland  from  that  quarter.  This  exactly  agrees 
with  what  was  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  that 
the  statements  (in  the  Landnamabok)  from  the  oldest 
Icelandic  source,  Are  Frode,  point  directly  to  Ireland  as  the 
birthplace  of  the  first  reports  of  Wineland.  We  read  in  the 
Landnamabok : 

"  Hvitramanna-land,  which  some  call  '  Irland  hit  Mikla '  [Ireland  the 
Great],  lies  westward  in  the  ocean  near  Wineland  [Vindland]  the  Good.  It 
is  reckoned  six  '  doegr's '  sail  from  Ireland." 

Nothing  more  is  said  about  Wineland.^  As  it  is  added  that 
Are  Marsson's  voyage  to  Hvitramanna-land 

^  In  Hauk's  Landnamabok,  Vin(d)land  is  mentioned  in  one  other  passage 

-->  r*  -5 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

"  was  first  related  by  Ravn  '  Hlymreks-farer,'  who  had  long  been  at  Limerick 
in  Ireland  " 

we  see  that  Ravn,  who  was  an  Icelandic  sailor  of  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  must  have  heard  of  both 
Hvitramanna-land  and  Wineland  in  Ireland,  since  otherwise 
he  could  not  have  known  that  one  lay  near  the  other.^  But 
as  Hvitramanna-land  or  "  Great  Ireland "  is  an  Irish 
mythical  country  (see  later),  it  becomes  probable  that  Wine- 
land  the  Good,  at  any  rate  in  this  connection,  was  one 
likewise.  The  old  Irish  legends  mention  many  such  fortunate 
islands  in  the  western  ocean,  which  have  similar  names,  and 
which  to  a  large  extent  are  derived  from  the  classical  myths 
of  the  Elysian  Fields  and  the  Insulae  Fortunatae.  Voyages 
to  them  form  prominent  features  of  most  of  the  Irish  tales 
and  legends.  In  the  heathen  tale  of  the  "  Voyage  of  Bran " 
("  Echtra  Brain  maic  Febail,"  preserved  in  fifteenth-  and 
fourteenth-century  copies  of  a  work  of  the  eleventh  century, 
but  perhaps  originally  written  down  in  the  seventh  century)  - 
there  are  descriptions  of :  "  Emain "  or  "  Tir  na-m-Ban " 
(the  land  of  women)  with  thousands  of  amorous  women  and 
maidens,  and  "without  care,  without  death,  without  any 
sickness  or  infirmity "  (where  Bran  and  his  men  live 
sumptuously  each  with  his  woman)  ;  ^  "  Aircthech  "  (=  the 
beautiful  land);  "  Ciuin "  (=  the  mild  land),  with  riches 
and  treasures  of  all  colors,  where  one  listens  to  lovely  music, 
and  drinks  the  most  delicious  wine;  "Mag  Mon "  (=the 
plain     of     sports);     "  Imchiuin "     (=  the     very     mild     land); 

[cap.  175],  in  connection  with  Karlsevne,  who  is  said  to  have  discovered  it;  but 
nothing  is  said  about  this  in  the  Sturlubok,  and  it  may  be  a  later  addition  (cf. 

p.  330- 

1  Ravn  told  the  story  to  Thorfinn,  Earl  of  Orkney  (ob.  circa  1064),  who  in 
turn  told  it  to  some  Icelanders,  and  from  them  it  reached  Thorkel  Gellisson, 
Are  Frode's  uncle. 

"  Cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  257,  261 ;  Kuno  Meyer,  1895,  i. 

^  This  is  evidently  the  land  that  in  the  Christian  Breton  legend  of  St. 
Machutus  (ninth  century)  has  become  the  paradisical  island  of  Yma,  in- 
habited by  heavenly  angels. 

354 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

"Mag  Mell"  (=the  happy  plain,  the  Elysium  of  the  Irish), 
which  is  described  as  lying  beneath  the  sea,  where  without  sin, 
without  crime,  men  and  loving  women  sit  under  a  bush  at  the 
finest  sports,  with  the  noblest  wine,  where  there  is  a  splendid 
wood  with  flowers  and  fruits  and  golden  leaves,  and  the  true 
scent  of  the  vine ;  there  is  also  "  Inis  Subai "  (the  isle  of  glad- 
ness), where  all  the  people  do  nothing  but  laugh.^  It  is  said 
in  the  same  tale  that  "  there  are  thrice  fifty  distant  islands  in 
the  ocean  to  the  west  of  us,  each  of  them  twice  or  thrice  as  large 
as  Erin." 

That  western  happy  lands  in  the  Irish  legends  (even  in 
the  Christian  "  Imram  Maelduin ")  should  often  be  depicted 
as  the  Land  of  Women  ("  Tir  na-m-Ban  ")  or  Land  of  Virgins 
("  Tir  na-n-Ingen "),  with  amorously  longing  women,  might 
be  thought  to  have  some  connection  with  Mahomet's  Paradise 
and  the  Houris;  but  the  erotically  sensuous  element  is  every- 
where so  prominent  in  mediaeval  Irish  literature  that  this 
feature  may  be   a   genuine   Irish   one.-     It  must,   by  the   way, 

1  In  the  Christian  Irish  legend  "  Imram  Maelduin,"  the  voyagers  arrive  at 
two  islands,  that  of  the  lamenting  people  with  complaining  voices,  and  that  of 
the  laughing  people.  The  same  two  islands  are  mentioned  in  the  "  Navigation 
of  the  Sons  of  O'Corry,"  "  Imram  Curaig  Ua  Corra  "  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  160, 
171,  188,  189].  They  are  evidently  connected  with  Greek  conceptions,  as  we 
find  them  in  Theopompus,  of  the  rivers  Hedone  and  Lype  in  the  distant  land 
of  Meropis  (see  above,  p.  17;  cf.  also  the  springs  of  voluptuousness  and  laugh- 
ter in  Lucian's  Isle  of  Bliss  in  the  "  Vera  Historia.").  There  may  further  be  a 
connection  with  the  island  of  the  lamenting  people  in  the  statement  of  Saxo 
Grammaticus,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Danish  history,  that  it  was  thought 
that  in  the  noise  of  the  drift-ice  against  the  coast  of  Iceland  the  lamenting  voices 
of  lost  souls  could  be  heard,  condemned  to  expiate  their  sins  in  that  bitter  cold. 

-  These  Irish  ideas  of  a  happy  land  of  women  have,  it  may  be  remarked, 
many  points  of  resemblance  with  our  Norwegian  belief  in  fairies  ("  hulder  ") 
and  with  the  German  Venusberg  myth,  since  the  "  hulder,"  like  Frau  Venus, 
originally  Frau  Holle,  or  Holda  [cf.  J.  Grimm,  1876,  ii.  p.  780],  kidnaps  and 
seduces  men,  and  keeps  them  with  her  for  a  long  time;  but  the  sensual  ele- 
ment is  more  subdued  and  less  prominent  in  the  Germanic  myths.  It  may 
seem  probable  that  the  Irish  land  of  women  also  has  some  connection  with  the 
amorous,  beautiful-haired  nymph  Calypso's  island  of  Ogygia,  far  off  in  the 
sea,  in  the  Odyssey  [v.  135,  f.;  vii.  254,  f.].  Just  as  the  men  in  the  Irish 
legends  neither  grow  older  nor  die  when  they  come  to  the  land  of  women, 

355 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

be    this    "  Tir   na-n-Ingen "    that   we    meet    with   again   in   the 

Faroese    lay    "  Gongu-Rolv's    kv^tSi,"    where    the    giant    from 

Trollebotten    carries    Rolv    to     "  Moyaland "     (cf.     Smamoya- 

land) ;  there  Rolv  slept  three  nights  with  the  fair  "  Lindin  mja  " 

(=the  slender  lime  tree,  i.e.,  maid),  and  on  the  third  night  she 

lost  her  virginity.     But  the  other  maidens  all  want  to  see  him, 

they  all  want  to  torment  him,  some  want  to  throw  him  into 

the  sea, 

"  Summar  vildu  hann  a  galgan  f  ora  "  Some  would  carry  him  to  the  gallows, 

summar  riva  hans  har,  some  would  tear  his  hair, 

uttan   frugvin   Lindin   mja,  except  the  damsel   Lindin  the  slender, 

hon  fellir   fyri   hann  tar."  she  shed  tears  for  him." 

She  sends  for  the  bird  "  Skugv,"  which  carries  him  on  its 

back  for  seven  days  and  six  nights  across  the  sea  to  the  highest 

mountain     in     Trondhjem.     [Cf.     Hammershaimb,     1855,     pp. 

138   f.] 

and  as  the  queen  of  the  country  will  not  let  the  men  go  again  [cf.  Maelduin], 
so  Calypso  wished  to  keep  her  Odysseus,  and  to  make  him  "  an  immortal  man, 
ever  young  to  eternity."  In  a  similar  way  the  men  who  come  to  the  "hulder" 
in  the  mountain  do  not  grow  old,  and  they  seem  to  have  even  greater  difficulty 
in  getting  out  again  than  kidnaped  women.  (It  is  a  common  feature  that 
they  do  not  grow  older,  or  that  a  long  time  passes  without  their  noticing  it  in 
the  intoxication  of  pleasure.  Lucian  also  relates  that  those  who  come  to  his 
Isle  of  Bliss  grow  no  older  than  they  are  when  they  come.)  Odysseus  longs 
for  his  home,  like  one  of  Bran's  men  (and  like  Maelduin's  men,  the  kidnaped 
men  in  the  German  myths,  etc.),  and  at  last  receives  permission  to  go,  like 
Bran.  Calypso  means  "  the  hidden  one "  (from  yaXo-zzio  =  hide  by  en- 
veloping) and  thus  answers  to  "  hulder "  (  =  the  hidden  one,  cf.  "  hulda," 
something  which  covers,  conceals,  envelops),  and  the  German  Frau  Holle,  or 
Holda  (  =  "hulder").  They  are  precisely  the  same  beings  as  the  Irish 
"  sid  "-people,  who  are  also  invisible,  and  the  women  in  "  Tir  na-m-Ban,"  the 
island  in,  or  under,  the  sea  precisely  like  the  Norwegian  "  huldreland  "  (see 
later). 

It  may  further  be  supposed  that  there  is  some  connection  between  the  ideas 
which  appear  in  certain  Irish  legends  of  the  land  of  virgins — where  there  are 
no  men,  and  the  virgins  have  to  go  to  the  neighboring  land  of  men  ("  Tir  na- 
Fer")  to  be  married  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  269] — and  the  conceptions  of  Sena, 
the  Celtic  island  of  priestesses  or  women,  off  the  coast  of  Brittany,  where 
according  to  Dionysius  Periegetes  there  were  Bacchantes  who  held  nightly 
orgies,  but  where  no  men  might  come,  and  the  women  therefore  (like  the 
Amazons)  had  to  visit  the  men  on  the  neighboring  coast,  and  return  afteC 
having  had  intercourse  with  them.  Similar  ideas  of  islands  with  women  and 
men  separated  occur  in  old  Indian  legends. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 


The  "Promised  Land"  ("  Tir  Tairngiri ")  with  the 
"  Happy  Plain "  ("  Mag  Mell ")  ^  became  in  the  Christian 
Irish  legends  the  earthly  Paradise,  "  Terra  Repromissionis 
Sanctorum"  (the  land  of  promise  of  the  saints).  Other 
names  for  the  happy  land  or  happy  isles  in  the  west  are: 
"Hy  Breasail"  (=  the  fortunate  isle),  "Tir  na-m-Beo " 
(=the  land  of  the  living),  "Tir  na-n-6g "  (=the  land  of 
youth),  "Tir  na-m-Buadha "  (=  the  land  of  virtues),  "  Hy 
na-Beatha"  (=  the  isle  of  life).  The  happy  isle  of  "  Hy 
Breasail,"  which  was 
thought  to  be  inhabited 
by  living  people,  was  also 
frequently  called  the 
"  Great  Land "  (which 
when  translated  into  Old 
Norse  might  become 
"  ViSland ") ;  just  as 
the  "  Land  of  the 
Living,"  where  there 
were  onlyenticing 
women  and  maidens, 
and  neither  death  nor 
sin  nor  offense,  was 
called  the  "Great 
Strand"  ("  Trag  Mor").^  There  is  also  mention  of  "Tir 
n-Ingnad "  (land  of  marvels)  and  "  Tirib  Ingnad "  (lands  of 
marvels.  This  Irish  series  of  names  and  conceptions  for 
the  same  wonderful  land  (or  strand)  may  well  be  thought 
to  have  been  the  origin  of  the  name  "  FurSustrandir."  ^ 
The   Irish   often   imagined   their   Promised  Land,   with   "  Mag 


[From  a  MS.  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Royal  Library,  Copenhagen] 


1  Cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  287;  Whitley  Stokes,  Revue  Celtique,  xv.  Paris,  1894, 
pp.  437,  f. ;  F.  Lot,  Romania,  xxvii.  1898,  p.  559. 

"  Cf.  Lageniensis,  1870,  p.  116;  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  263,  279. 

3  It  is  stated  in  an  Irish  legend  that  the  hero  Ciaban  went  as  an  exile  to 
"  Trag  in-Chairn "  (the  strand  of  cairns)  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  271].  This 
might  remind  us  of  Helluland  (?). 

357 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Mell "  and  also  the  land  of  women,  as  the  sunken  land 
under  the  sea  (cf.  p.  355),  and  called  it  "  Tir  fo-Thuin"  (=  the 
land  under  the  wave). 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  name  like  "  Vinland  hit  GoSa  " 
should  have  developed  from  such  a  world  of  ideas  as  this. 
But  Moltke  Moe  has  drawn  my  attention  to  yet  another 
remarkable  agreement,  in  the  Grape-island  (Insula 
Uvarum),  one  of  the  fortunate  isles  visited  by  the  Irish 
saint  Brandan.  In  the  Latin  "  Navigatio  Sancti  Brandani " 
— a  description  of  Brandan's  seven  years'  sea  voyage  in 
search  of  the  Promised  Land — it  is  related  that  one  day 
a  mighty  bird  came  flying  to  Brandan  and  the  brethren  who 
were  with  him  in  the  coracle ;  it  had  a  branch  in  its  beak  with 
a  bunch  of  grapes  of  unexampled  size  and  redness  ^  [cf.  Num- 
bers xiii.  23], 2  and  it  dropped  the  branch  into  the  lap  of  the  man 
of  God.  The  grapes  were  as  large  as  apples,  and  they  lived  on 
them  for  twelve  days. 

"Three  days  afterwards  they  reached  the  island;  it  was  covered  with  the 
thickest  forests  of  vines,  which  bore  grapes  with  such  incredible  fertility  that 
all  the  trees  were  bent  to  the  earth;  all  with  the  same  fruit  and  the  same 
color;  not  a  tree  was  unfruitful,  and  there  were  none  found  there  of  any  other 
sort." 

Then  this  man  of  God  goes  ashore  and  explores  the 
island,  while  the  brethren  wait  in  the  boat  (like  Karlsevne 
and  his  men  waiting  for  the  runners),  until  he  comes  back 
to  them  bringing  samples  of  the  fruits  of  the  island  (as  the 
runners  brought  with  them  samples  of  the  products  of 
Wineland).  He  says:  "Come  ashore  and  set  up  the  tent, 
and   regale   yourselves   with   the   excellent   fruits   of   this   land, 

1  In  the  tale  of  Maelduin's  voyage,  which  is  older  than  the  "  Navigatio " 
(see  above,  p.  336),  there  occurs  a  similar  mighty  bird  bringing  a  branch  with 
fruit  like  grapes,  possessing  marvelous  properties;  but  there  is  no  grape-island 
[cf.  Zimmer,  i88g,  p.  169]. 

-  In  the  Latin  translation  of  the  Bible  in  use  at  that  time,  the  Vulgate 
[Num.  xiii.  24,  f.],  the  passage  runs:  "And  they  came  to  the  valley  of  grapes, 
cut  a  branch  with  its  cluster  of  grapes,  and  two  men  carried  it  upon  a  staff. 
They  also  took  away  pomegranates  and  figs  from  this  place,  which  is  called 
Nehel-escol,  that  is,  the  valley  of  grapes,  because  the  children  of  Israel  brought 
grapes  from  thence." 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

which  the  Lord  has  shown  us."  For  forty  days  they  lived  well 
on  the  grapes,  and  when  they  left  they  loaded  the  boat  with  as 
many  of  them  as  it  would  hold,  exactly  like  Leif  in  the  "  Gron- 
lendinga-f^attr,"  who  loaded  the  ship's  boat  with  grapes  when 
they  left  Wineland;  and  like  Thorvald  at  the  same  place,  who 
collected  grapes  and  vines  for  a  cargo  [cf.  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i. 
pp.  222,  230]. 

The  fortunate  island  on  which  the  monk  Mernoc  lived 
(at  the  beginning  of  the  "  Navigatio ")  was  called  the 
"  Insula  Deliciosa."  The  great  river  that  Brandan  found 
in  the  Terra  Repromissionis,  and  that  ran  through  the  middle 
of  the  island,  may  be  compared  with  the  stream  that 
Karlsevne  found  at  Hop,  in  Wineland,  which  fell  into  a  lake 
and  thence  into  the  sea,  and  where  they  entered  the  mouth 
of  the  river.  But  the  river  which  divided  the  Terra  Re- 
promissionis, and  which  Brandan  could  not  cross,  was 
evidently  originally  the  river  of  death,  Styx,  or  Acheron, 
in  Greek  mythology  (GjoU  in  Norse  mythology).  One 
might  be  tempted  to  suppose  that,  in  the  same  way  as  the 
whole  description  of  Wineland  has  been  dechristianized  from 
the  Terra  Repromissionis,  the  realistic,  and  therefore  often 
rationalizing  Icelanders  have  transformed  the  river  in  the 
Promised  Land,  the  ancient  river  of  death,  into  the  stream 
at  Hop. 

Other  passages  also  of  the  descriptions  of  the  Wineland 
voyages  present  similarities  with  Brandan's  voyage;  and 
similar  resemblances  are  found  with  other  Irish  legends,  so 
many,  in  fact,  that  they  cannot  be  explained  as  coincidences. 
The  "  Navigatio  Sancti  Brandani "  was  v/ritten  in  the 
eleventh  century,  or  in  any  case  before  11 00^  (but  parts  of 
the  legend  of  Brandan  may  belong  to  the  seventh  and  eighth 
centuries).  The  work  was  widely  diffused  in  Europe  in  the 
twelfth    century,    and    was    also    well    known    in    Iceland;    we 

1  In  France  a  poem  on  Brandan  of  as  early  as  1125,  founded  on  the  "  Navi- 
gatio," is  known,  dedicated  to  Queen  Aelis  of  Louvain;  cf.  Gaston  Paris:  La 
Litterature  Frangaise  en  Moyen  Age,  Paris,  1888,  p.  214. 

359 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

still  possess  an  Old  Norse  translation  of  parts  of  it  in  the  "  Heila- 
gra  Manna  S9gur "  [edited  by  Unger,  Christiania,  1877,  i.]. 
Through  oral  narratives,  the  mythical  features  which  are  included 
in  this  legend  have  evidently  helped  to  form  the  tradition  of  the 
Wineland  voyages. 

In  the  tale  of  the  voyage  of  Maelduin  and  his  companions 
("  Imram  Maelduin,"  see  above,  p.  336),*  it  is  related  that 
they  came  to  an  island  where  there  were  many  trees,  like 
willow  or  hazel,  with  wonderful  fruit  like  apples,  or  wine- 
fruit,  with  a  thick,  large  shell;  its  juice  had  so  intoxicating 
an  effect  that  Maelduin  slept  for  a  day  and  a  night  after 
having  drunk  it;  and  when  he  awoke,  he  told  his  com- 
panions to  collect  as  much  as  thej'  could  of  it,  for  the  world 
had  never  produced  anything  so  lovely.  They  then  filled 
all  their  vessels  with  the  juice,  which  they  pressed  out  of  the 
fruit,  and  left  the  island.  They  mixed  the  juice  with  water 
to  mitigate  its  intoxicating  and  soporific  effect,  as  it  was  so 
powerful.^  This  reminds  us  of  Tyrker  in  the  "  Gron- 
lendinga-('attr,"  who  gets  drunk  from  eating  the  grapes  he 
found.^ 

1  The  Irish  made  a  distinction  in  their  tales  of  voyages  between  "  imram," 
which  was  a  voluntary  journey,  and  "  longes,"  which  was  an  involuntary  one, 
usually  due  to  banishment.  In  Icelandic  literature  there  seems  to  be  no  such 
distinction,  but  the  voyages  are  often  due  to  outlawry  for  manslaughter  or 
some  other  reason;  cf.  Ganger-Rolf's  voyage,  Ingolf's  and  Hjorleif's  voyage  to 
Iceland,  Snaebjorn  Galti's  and  Rolf  of  Raudesand's  voyage  to  the  Gunnbjorn- 
skerries,  Eric  the  Red's  voyage  with  his  father  from  Norway,  and  afterwards 
from  Iceland,  etc.  Bjorn  Breidvikingekjasmpe  was  also  obliged  to  leave  Ice- 
land on  account  of  his  illicit  love  for  Snorre  Code's  sister.  This  agreement 
may,  of  course,  be  accidental,  but  together  with  the  many  other  resemblances 
between  Irish  and  Icelandic  literature,  it  may,  nevertheless,  be  worth  mentioning. 

=  Cf.  Zimmer,  i88g,  p.  168;  Joyce,  1879,  p.  156. 

3  To  these  wine-fruits  in  the  "  Imram  Maelduin "  correspond,  perhaps,  the 
white  and  purple-red  "  scaltae,"  which  in  the  "  Navigatio  Brandani "  cover  the 
low  island,  bare  of  trees,  called  the  "Strong  Men's  Island"  [Schroder,  1871,  p. 
24].  Brandan  pressed  one  of  the  red  ones,  "as  large  as  a  ball,"  and  got  a 
pound  of  juice,  on  which  he  and  his  brethren  lived  for  twelve  days.  It  might  be 
supposed  that  these  white  and  red  "  scaltae  "  from  the  flat  ocean-island  were  con- 
nected with  Lucian's  water-fishes  (which  seem  to  have  been  white)  and  wine- 
fishes  (which  had  the  purple  color  of  wine)  (see  above).  The  meaning  of 
360 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Wine  is,  moreover,  a  prominent  feature  in  many  of  the  Irish  legends  of  sea- 
voyages.  The  voyagers  often  find  intoxicating  drinks,  which  make  them  sleep 
for  several  days,  and  they  are  often  tormented  by  burning  thirst  and  come  to 
islands  with  springs  that  give  a  marvelously  quickening  drink.  In  the  tale  of 
the  voyage  of  the  three  sons  of  Ua  Corra  (twelfth  century?)  they  arrive  at  an 
island  where  a  stream  of  wine  flows  through  a  forest  of  oaks,  which  glitters 
enticingly  with  juicy  fruits.  They  ate  of  the  apples,  drank  a  little  of  the  stream 
of  wine,  and  were  immediately  satisfied  and  felt  neither  wounds  nor  sickness 
any  more.  In  the  tale  of  Maelduin  there  is  an  island  with  soil  as  white  as  a 
feather  and  with  a  spring  which  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  gives  whey  or 
water,  on  Sundays  and  the  days  of  martyrs  good  milk,  but  on  the  days  of  the 
Apostles,  of  Mary,  and  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  on  the  great  festivals  it  gives 
ale  and  wine  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  189,  163]. 

Brandan's  Grape-Island,  Maelduin  who  intoxicates  himself  by  eating  the 
wine  fruit,  and  the  stream  of  wine  flowing  through  the  oak  forest,  all  bear  a  re- 
markable resemblance  to  what  the  Greek  sophist  and  satirist  Lucian  (second 
century  A.D.)  relates  in  his  fables  in  the  "  Vera  Historia,"  about  the  seafarers 
who  came  to  a  lofty  wooded  island.  As  they  wandered  through  the  woods 
they  came  to  a  river,  which  instead  of  water  ran  with  wine,  like  Chios  wine. 
In  many  places  it  was  broad  and  deep  enough  to  be  navigable,  and  it  had  its 
source  in  many  great  vines,  which  hung  full  of  grapes.  In  the  river  were  fish 
of  the  color  and  taste  of  wine.  They  swallowed  some  so  greedily  that  they 
became  thoroughly  intoxicated.  But  afterwards  they  had  the  idea  of  mixing 
these  wine-fish  with  water-fish,  whereby  they  lost  the  too  powerful  taste  of 
wine  and  were  a  good  dish.  After  wading  through  the  river  of  wine  they  came 
upon  some  remarkable  vines,  the  upper  part  of  which  were  like  well-developed 
women  down  to  the  belt.  Their  fingers  ran  out  into  twigs  full  of  grapes,  their 
heads  v/ere  covered  with  vine  branches,  leaves,  and  grapes,  instead  of  hair. 
"  The  ladies  kissed  us  on  the  mouth,"  says  Lucian,  "  but  those  who  were 
kissed  became  drunk  on  the  spot  and  reeled.  Only,  their  fruit  they  would  not 
allow  us  to  take,  and  they  cried  out  in  pain  if  we  plucked  a  grape  or  two  off 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  them  showed  a  desire  to  pair  with  us,  but 
two  of  my  companions  who  complied  with  them  had  to  pay  dearly  for  it;  for 
.  .  .  they  grew  together  with  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  became  one 
stem  with  common  roots."  After  this  strange  experience  the  voyagers  filled 
their  empty  barrels  partly  with  ordinary  water,  partly  with  wine  from  the 
river,  and  on  the  following  morning  they  left  the  island.  In  the  Isle  of  the 
Blest,  at  which  they  afterwards  arrived,  there  were  in  addition  to  many  rivers 
of  water,  of  honey,  of  sweet-scented  essences  and  of  oil,  seven  rivers  of  milk 
and  eight  of  wine.  We  even  find  a  parallel  in  Lucian  to  Maelduin's  white 
island  with  the  springs  of  milk  and  wine,  as  the  travelers  come  to  a  sea  of  milk, 
where  there  was  a  great  island  of  cheese,  covered  with  vines  full  of  grapes;  but 

"scaltae"  ("  scaltis ")  is  uncertain.  Schroder  says  "sea-snails";  Prof.  Alf 
Torp  thinks  it  may  be  a  Celtic  word,  and  mentions  as  a  possibility  "  scalt " 
(  =  "  cleft  ").    In  that  case  it  might  be  a  mussel,  which  is  "  cleft "  in  two  shells. 

361 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

these  yielded  milk  instead  of  wine  [cf.  Wieland,  1789,  iv.  pp.  150  f-,  188, 
f.  196].  A  direct  literary  connection  between  Lucian  and  the  Irish  myths  can 
hardly  be  probable,  as  he  is  not  thought  to  have  been  known  in  western 
Europe  before  the  fourteenth  century;  but  he  was  much  read  in  eastern  Eu- 
rope, and  oral  tales  founded  on  his  stories  may  have  reached  the  Irish.  The 
resemblances  are  so  pronounced  and  so  numerous  that  it  does  not  seem  very 
probable  that  they  should  be  wholly  accidental.  Such  an  oral  connection 
might,  for  instance,  have  been  brought  about  by  the  Scandinavians,  who  had 
much  intercourse  with  Miklagard  (Byzantium),  or  by  the  Arabs,  who,  m  fact, 
preserved  a  great  part  of  Greek  literature,  and  who  were  in  constant  com- 
munication both  with  Celts  and  with  Scandinavians. 

That  a  mythical  island  like  the  Isle  of  Grapes— or  per- 
haps others  as  well,  such  as  the  "  Insula  Deliciosa  "—might  be 
the  origin  of  the  "  Vinland  hit  GoSa  "  of  the  Icelanders,  to  which 
one  sailed  from  Greenland  (and  of  Adam  of  Bremen's  Winland) 
appears  natural  also  from  the  fact  that  many  of  the  islands 
and  tracts  that  are  mentioned  in  the  "  Navigatio,"  and  that 
for  the  most  part  are  also  mentioned  in  the  older  tale  of 
Maelduin,  are  undoubtedly  connected  with  northern  and 
western  waters.  That  this  must  be  so  is  easily  understood 
when  one  considers  the  voyages  of  Irish  monks  to  the  Faroes 
and  Iceland.  The  Sheep  Island,  which  was  full  of  sheep, 
and  where  Brandan  obtained  his  paschal  lamb,  must  be  the 
Faroes,  where  the  sheep  are  mentioned  even  by  Dicuil  (see 
p.  163),  just  as  the  island  with  the  many  birds  also  reminds 
us  of  Dicuil's  account  of  these  islands;  the  island  on  the 
borders  of  Hell,  whose  steep  clifTs  were  black  as  coal,  where 
one  of  Brandan's  monks,  when  he  set  foot  ashore,  was 
instantly  seized  and  burnt  by  demons,  and  which  at  their 
departure  they  saw  covered  with  fire  and  flames,  may  have 
some  connection  with  Iceland.^  But  it  also  bears  some 
resemblance  to  the  Hell  Island  that  Lucian's  voyagers  come  to, 

1  D'Avezac's  hypothesis  [1845,  P-  Q]  that  it  might  be  an  echo  of  TenerifTe 
[cf  also  De  Goeje,  1891,  p.  61],  which  in  mediaeval  maps  was  called  "  Isola  dell' 
Inferno  "  is  untenable,  since  the  Phoenicians'  knowledge  of  the  Canaries  had 
long  been  forgotten  at  that  time,  and  it  was  only  after  their  rediscovery  by  the 
Italians,  about  1300,  that  Teneriffe  was  called  on  the  Medici  map  of  1351 
"  Isola  dell'  Inferno."  In  classical  literature  there  is  no  indication  that  any 
of  the  Canaries  was  regarded  as  volcanic;  on  the  contrary  Pliny's  "  Nivaria  " 
(i.e.,  the  snow-island)  seems  to  be  Teneriffe  with  snow  on  the  summit. 
362 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

surrounded  by  steep  cliffs,  where  there  were  stinking  fumes  of 
asphalt,  sulphur,  pitch,  and  roasted  human  beings.  When  Bran- 
dan  arrives  at  the  curdled  sea  ("mare  quasi  coagulatum  "),  and 
has  to  sail  through  darkness  before  he  comes  to  the  Land  of 
Happiness,  or  when  we  hear  of  a  thick  fog  like  a  wall  about  the 
kingdom  of  Manannan,  we  again  think  of  the  northern  regions 
where  the  Liver  Sea  lay,  and  where  Adam  of  Bremen  had  his 
dark  or  mist-filled  sea. 


While  thus  many  features  connect  the  legend  of  Brandan  with  northern 
waters,  it  has,  on  the  other  hand — like  many  other  Irish  myths — its  roots  far 
down  in  the  mythical  conceptions  of  the  classics.  Above  all,  Brandan's  Para- 
dise, or  "  Promised  Land  of  the  Saints,"  Terra  Repromissionis  Sanctorum,  is 
nothing  but  the  Greeks'  Isles  of  the  Blest,  blended  with  ideas  from  the  Bible. 
As  shown  by  Zimmer  [1889,  pp.  328,  f.],  the  "  Imram  Maelduin  "  (which  to  a 
large  extent  forms  the  foundation  of  the  "  Navigatio  St.  Brandani ")  and  other 
Irish  tales  of  sea  voyages  have  great  similarity  to  Virgil's  "  ^neid,"  and  are 
composed  on  its  model.  We  have  already  said  that  Brandan's  Grape-island 
may  have  some  connection  with  Lucian.  From  him  is  possibly  also  derived  Bran- 
dan's great  whale,  "  lasconicus,"  on  whose  back  they  live  and  celebrate  Easter. 
But  similar  big  fishes  are  known  from  old  Indian  legends,  from  the  legends 
about  Alexander,  etc.  It  may  also  be  mentioned  that  in  the  Breton  legend 
corresponding  to  Brandan's,  that  of  St.  Machutus  (written  down  by  Bili,  dea- 
con at  Aleth,  ninth  century),  the  latter  and  Brandan  came  to  an  island  where 
they  find  the  dead  giant  Mildu,  whom  Machutus  awakens  and  baptizes  and 
who,  wading  through  the  sea,  tries  to  draw  their  ship  to  the  Paradise-island  of 
Yma,  which,  he  says,  is  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  shining  gold,  like  a  mirror, 
without  any  visible  entrance.  But  a  storm  raises  the  sea  and  bursts  the  cable 
by  which  he  is  towing  them.  Humboldt  already  saw  in  this  giant  the  god 
Cronos,  who,  according  to  Plutarch,  lay  sleeping  on  an  island  in  the  Cronian 
Sea  to  the  north-west  of  Ogygia,  which  lay  five  days'  voyage  to  the  west  of 
Britain  (see  above,  p.  156).  It  is  probably  the  same  giant  who  in  the  tale  of 
Brandan  written  in  Irish  ("  Imram  Brenaind  ")  has  'oecome  a  beautiful  maiden, 
whiter  than  snow  or  sea-spray;  but  a  hundred  feet  high,  nine  feet  across  be- 
twen  the  breasts,  and  with  a  middle  finger  seven  feet  long.  She  is  lying  life- 
less, killed  by  a  spear  through  the  shoulder;  but  Brandan  awakens  and  baptizes 
her.  She  belongs  to  the  sea-people,  who  are  awaiting  redemption.  As,  in 
answer  to  Brandan's  question,  she  prefers  going  straight  to  Heaven  to  living, 
she  dies  again  immediately  without  a  sigh  after  taking  the  sacrament  [cf. 
Schirmer,  1888,  pp.  30,  72;  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  136;  De  Goeje,  1891,  p.  69].  This 
maiden  is  evidently  connected  with  the  supernaturally  beautiful,  big,  and  white 
king's  daughter  from  the  Land  of  Virgins  ("  Tir  na-n-Ingen  ")  who  seeks  the 
protection  of  Finn  MacCumaill,  and  who  is  also  pierced  by  a  spear  [cf.  Zim- 
mer, 1889,  pp.  269,   325].     Thus  do  mythical  beings  transform  themselves  till  they 

363 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

become  unrecognizable.    The  same  woman  is  found  again  in  Iceland  as  late 
as  the  seventeenth  century.^ 

In  many  of  its  features  the  Brandan  legend,  or  similar  Irish  legends,  may  be 
shown  to  have  had  influence  on  Norse  literature.  The  theft  of  the  neck-chain 
(or  bridle?)  by  one  of  the  brethren,  who  comes  to  grief  thereby,  in  the  "  Navi- 
gatio  "  and  in  other  Irish  tales,  is  found  again,  as  Moltke  Moe  points  out  to  me 
in  the  story  of  Thorkel  Adelfar  in  Saxo  Grammaticus,  as  a  theft  of  jewels  and 
of  a  cloak,  through  which  the  thieves  also  come  to  grief.  The  great  fish 
(whale)  lasconicus,  of  which  Brandan  relates  that  it  tries  in  vain  to  bite 
its  own  tail,  is  evidently  the  Midgardsworm  of  Norse  literature.  In  the  same 
way  the  little,  apparently  innocent,  but  supernatural  cat  in  the  "  Imram  Mael- 
duin "  which  suddenly  destroys  the  man  who  steals  the  neck-chain,  may  be 
connected  with  the  cat  that  Thor  tries  to  lift  in  Utgard.  It  is  doubtless  the 
same  little  cat  that  three  young  priests  took  with  them  on  their  voyage  in  an- 
other Irish  legend  (in  the  Book  of  Leinster,  of  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century).  In  the  "  Imram  Brenaind  "  this  little  cat  they  took  with  them  has 
grown  into  a  monkey  as  large  as  a  young  ox,  which  swims  after  Brandan's 
boat  and  wants  to  swallow  it  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  139].  Again,  quite  recently 
Von  Sydow  [1910,  pp.  65  f.]  has  shown  that  the  Snorra-Edda's  myth  of  Thor's 
journey  to  Utgard  is  based  on  Irish  myths  and  tales. 

Legends  of  a  happy  land  or  an  island  far  over  the  sea  towards 
the  sunset  were  evidently  widely  diffused  in  northern  Europe 
in  those  days,  outside  Ireland.  In  Anglo-Saxon  literature  there 
is  a  dialogue  between  Adrianus  and  Ritheus  (probably  of  the 
tenth  century),  where  we  read: 

"  Tell  me  where  the  sun  shines  at  night."  ..."  I  tell  you  in  three 
places:  first,  in  the  belly  of  the  whale  that  is  called  'Leuiathan';  and  tha 
second  season  it  shines  in  Hell;  and  the  third  season  it  shines  upon  the  island 
that  is  called  '  GliS,'  and  there  the  souls  of  holy  men  repose  till  doomsday."  2 

This  GliS  (i.e.,  the  glittering  land)  is  evidently  the  Land  of 
the  Blest,  Brandan's  Terra  Repromissionis,  that  lies  in  dazzling 
sunshine,  after  one  has  passed  through  darkness  and  mist;  but 
whether  the  myth  reached  the  Anglo-Saxons  from  the  Irish 
seems  doubtful. 

Pseudo-Gildas's  description  (twelfth  century)  of  the  isle  of 
Avallon  (the  apple-island  of  Welsh  myth)  is  also  of  inter- 
est; it  is  connected  with  exactly  the  same  ideas  as  the  Irish 
happy  isles: 

'Jens   Lauritzon  Wolf's  "  Norrigia  Illustrata,"  1651. 

-  Cf.  John  M.  Kemble:  The  Dialogue  of  Salomon  and  Saturnus,  London, 
1848,  p.  198.    Moltke  Moe  also  called  my  attention  to  this  remarkable  passage. 

364 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

"  A  remarkable  island  is  surrounded  by  the  ocean,  full  of  all  good  things;  no 
thief,  no  robber,  no  enemy  pursues  one  there;  no  violence,  no  v/inter,  no  sum- 
mer rages  immoderately;  peace,  concord,  spring  last  eternally,  neither  flower 
nor  lily  is  wanting,  nor  rose  nor  violet;  the  apple-tree  bears  flowers  and  fruit 
on  the  selfsame  branch;  there  without  stain  youths  dwell  with  their  maidens, 
there  is  no  old  age  and  no  oppressive  sickness,  no  sorrow,  all  is  full  of  joy."  ^ 

It  results,  then,  from  what  has  here  been  quoted,  that 
a  Grape-island  ("  Insula  Uvarum ")  makes  its  appearance 
in  Irish  literature  in  the  eleventh  century,  at  about  the  same 
time  when  Adam  of  Bremen  mentions,  from  Danish  informants, 
an  island  called  "  Winland."  Of  the  same  century  again 
is  the  Norwegian  runic  stone  from  Honen  in  Ringerike,  on 
which,  as  we  shall  see  later,  Wineland  is  possibly  men- 
tioned. From  the  form  of  the  runes,  S.  Bugge  ascribes 
it  to  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century,  hardly  older, 
though  it  may  be  later.  "  Insula  Uvarum "  translated  into 
the  Old  Norse  language  could  not  very  well  become  anything 
but  Vinland  (or  Viney),  since  Vinberjarey  or  Vinberjarland 
would  not  sound  well.  We  thus  have  the  remarkable  circum- 
stance that  an  island  with  the  same  name  and  the  same 
properties  makes  its  appearance  almost  simultaneously  in 
Ireland  and  in  Denmark  (and  possibly  also  in  Norway). 
That  these  Wine-islands  or  Winelands  should  have  originated 
entirely  independently  of  one  another,  in  countries  which 
had  such  close  intellectual  connection,  would  be  a  coincidence 
of  the  kind  that  one  cannot  very  well  assume,  since  it  must 
be  regarded  as  more  probable  that  there  was  a  connection. 
But  Brandan's  Grape-island  can  scarcely  be  derived  from  a 
Wineland  discovered  by  the  Norsemen,  since,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  the  wine  and  wine-fruit  play  such  a  prominent 
part  in  the  older  Irish  legends,  and  the  ancient  tale  of  Bran 
("  Echtra  Brain  ")  describes  the  Irish  Elysium  ("  Mag  M.ell  ") 
as  a  land  with  magnificent  woods  and  the  true  scent  of  the 

1  W.  Mannhardt:  Germanische  Mythen,  Berlin,  1858,  pp.  460,  f.  Cf.  "Vita 
Merlini,"  the  verses  on  the  "  Insula  pomorum,  qvas  Fortunata  vocatur  "  ("  the 
apple-island  which  is  called  Fortunate ")  [San-Marte,  1853,  pp.  299,  329]. 
"  Avallon "  has  a  remarkable  resemblance  in  sound  to  Py theas's  amber-island 
"  Abalus  "  (p.  70). 

365 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

vine,  etc.  (see  p.  355).  In  the  next  place,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  Brandan's  Grape-island  bears  a  resemblance  to 
Lucian's  Grape-island;  but  as  Lucian's  descriptions  seem 
also  to  have  influenced,  among  others,  the  tale  of  the 
intoxicating  wine-fruit  in  the  "  Imram  Maelduin,"  it  looks 
as  though  Lucian's  stories  had  reached  Ireland  (e.g.  by 
Scandinavian  travelers  or  through  Arabs?)  long  before  the 
"  Navigatio  Brandani  "  was  written.  As  thus  the  Irish  wine- 
island  cannot  well  be  due  to  a  Norse  discovery,  it  becomes 
probable  that  Adam's  name  Winland  (as  well  as  the  possible 
Norwegian  name)  was  originally  derived  from  Ireland,  and 
that  it  reached  the  northern  countries  orally.  If  the  Danes 
did  not  get  the  name  from  the  Norwegians  they  may  have 
brought  it  themselves,  as  they  also  had  direct  communication 
with  Ireland.!  This  conclusion,  that  the  name  of  Wineland 
came  from  Ireland,  is  again  strengthened  from  an  entirely 
different  quarter,  namely,  the  Landnamabok,  where  it  is 
said  that  Great  Ireland  lay  near  Wineland.  As  suggested 
on  p.  354,  this  shows  that  the  Icelanders  must  have  heard 
both  lands  spoken  of  in  Ireland.  As  Ravn  Hlymreks-farer 
is  given  as  the  original  authority,  and  after  him  Thorfinn, 
earl  of  Orkney  (ob.  circa  1064),  this  may  have  been  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century;  but  as  the  statement 
came  finally  from  Thorkel  Gellisson  (and  consequently  was 
written  down  by  Are  Frode)  it  may  also  have  been  in  the 
second   half   of  that   century.     In  this   way   we   seem   to   have 


1  Since  the  above  was  printed  in  the  Norwegian  edition  of  this  book.  Prof. 
Moltke  Moe  has  called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that,  according  to  Icelandic 
sources,  the  Icelandic  chief,  Gellir  Thorkelsson,  grandfather  of  Are  Frode,  died 
at  Roskilde,  in  Denmark,  in  1073,  after  having  been  prostrated  there  for  a 
long  time.  He  was  then  on  his  way  home  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  Adam's 
book  was  written  between  1072  and  1075,  and  he  had  received  the  statements 
about  Wineland  from  Danes  of  rank.  The  coincidence  here  is  so  remarkable 
that  there  must  probably  be  a  connection.  It  is  Gellir  Thorkelsson's  son, 
Thorkel  Gellisson,  who  is  given  as  the  authority  for  the  first  mention  of  Wine- 
land in  Icelandic  literature,  and  according  to  Landnamabok  he  seems  to  have 
got  his  information  from  Ireland  through  other  Icelanders. 

366 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

a   natural   explanation   of   the   simultaneous  appearance   of   the 
name  in  the  North.' 

As  the  statement  in  the  "  Landnama "  is  due  to  Thorkel 
Gellisson,  it  is  doubtless  most  probable  that  the  Wineland 
that  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  Icelandic  literature  in 
a  gloss  in  Are  Frode's  Islendingabok  also  has  Thorkel  (who 
is    mentioned    immediately    afterwards)    for   its    authority    (cf. 

1  It  is  not,  however,  quite  certain  that  "  Vinland  "  (with  a  long  "  i ")  was 
the  original  form  of  the  name,  though  this  is  probable,  as  it  occurs  thus  in  the 
MSS.  that  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  two  oldest  authorities:  Adam  of  Bre- 
men ("  Winland")  and  Are  Frode's  Islendingabok  ("  Vinland  ")•  But  it  cannot 
be  entirely  ignored  that  in  the  oldest  Icelandic  MSS. — and  the  oldest  author- 
ities after  Are  and  Adam — it  is  called:  in  Hauk's  Landnamabok  "  Vindland  hit 
goi5a"  (in  the  two  passages  where  it  is  mentioned),  in  the  Sturlubok  "  Irland 
et  goda,"  in  the  "  Kristni-saga  "  (before  1245)  probably  "Vindland  hit  go5a  " 
[cf.  F.  Jonsson,  Hauksbok,  1892,  p.  141],  and  in  the  "  Grettis-saga  "  (about  1290, 
but  the  MS.  dates  from  the  fifteenth  century)  Thorhall  Gamlason,  who  sailed 
with  Karlsevne,  is  called  in  one  place  a  "  Vindlendingr "  and  in  another  a 
"  ViPlendingr."  It  is  striking  that  the  name  should  so  often  be  written  incor- 
rectly; there  must  have  been  some  uncertainty  in  its  interpretation.  Another 
thing  is  that  in  none  of  these  oldest  sources  is  there  any  mention  of  wine,  ex- 
cept in  Adam  of  Bremen,  who  repeats  Isidore,  and  after  him  it  is  only  when 
we  come  to  the  Saga  of  Eric  the  Red  that  "  Vinland  "  with  its  wine  is  met  with. 
It  might  therefore  be  supposed  that  the  name  was  originally  something  differ- 
ent. The  Greenlanders  might,  for  instance,  have  discovered  a  land  with  trees 
in  the  west  and  called  it  "  ViSland  "  (  =  tree-land).  Influenced  by  myths  of 
the  Irish  "  Great  Land  "  ("  Tir  M6r  ")  this  might  become  "  ViSland  "  (  =  the 
great  land,  p.  357) :  but  this  again,  through  the  ideas  of  wine  (from  the  For- 
tunate Isles),  as  in  Adam  of  Bremen,  might  become  "  Vinland."  We  have  a 
parallel  to  such  a  change  of  sound  in  the  conversion  of  "  viSbein  "  (  =  collar- 
bone) into  "  vinbein."  A  form  like  "  Vindland  "  may  have  arisen  through  con- 
fusion of  the  two  forms  we  have  given,  or  again  with  the  name  Vendland. 
A  name  compounded  of  the  ancient  word  "  vin  "  (  ^  pasture)  is  scarcely  credi- 
ble, since  the  word  went  out  of  use  before  the  eleventh  century;  besides,  one 
would  then  have  to  expect  the  form  "  Vinjarland."  In  Are  Frode's  work,  which 
we  only  know  from  late  copies  (of  the  seventeenth  century),  the  original  name 
might  easily  have  been  altered  in  agreement  with  later  interpretation.  But  it 
is,  nevertheless,  most  probable  that  "  Vinland  "  was  the  original  form,  and  that 
the  variants  are  due  to  uncertainty.  It  may,  however,  well  be  supposed  that 
there  were  two  forms  of  the  name,  in  the  same  way  as,  for  instance,  the 
"Draumkvade"  is  also  called  the  "  Draug-kvaede  ";  or  that  several  names  may 
have  fused  to  become  one,  similarity  of  sound  and  character  being  the  deciding 
factor. 

367 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

p.  258),  although  the  sentence  might  be  by  Are  himself. 
Thorkel  may  have  heard  of  this  Wineland  in  Greenland;  but 
it  is  more  likely  to  be  the  country  he  heard  of  in  connection 
with  the  mythical  Hvitramanna-land  from  Ireland,  and  he 
may  have  heard  that  there  were  said  to  dwell  there  wights  (or 
trolls)  that  were  called  Skraslings.  Two  possibilities  suggest 
themselves:  either  this  Wineland  with  its  Skraelings  was 
nothing  but  the  well-known  mythical  land  with  its  mythical 
people,  which  required  no  further  description.  It  cannot  be 
objected  that  the  sober,  critical  Are  would  not  have  mentioned 
a  mythical  country  in  this  way;  for,  if  he  was  capable  of 
believing  in  a  Hvitramanna-land,  he  could  also  believe  in  such 
a  Wineland.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  a  land  which  had 
actually  been  discovered  and  to  which  the  name  of  the 
mythical  country  had  been  transferred.  The  latter  hypothesis 
might  be  strengthened  by  other  things  that  point  to  the 
Greenlanders  having  really  found  land  in  the  west.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  a  country  actually  discovered  is  meant, 
it  is  curious  that  neither  Are  nor  the  "  Landnama  "  makes  any 
mention  of  the  discovery,  whereas  the  discovery  of  Greenland  is 
related  at  some  length,  and  also  that  of  Hvitramanna-land. 
Again,  when  Eric  the  Red  came  to  Greenland,  such  a  land  had 
in  any  case  not  been  discovered,  so  that  it  could  not  have  been 
he  who  named  the  Eskimo  after  the  inhabitants  of  that  land, 
whereas  Are  might  readily  suppose  that  he  had  taken  the  name 
of  Skraelings  from  the  people  of  the  mythical  country ;  thus  Are's 
words,  as  they  now  stand,  would  have  a  clearer  meaning. 

It  may  also  be  worth  mentioning  that  in  the  only  passage 
of  the  Sturlubok  where  Wineland  is  alluded  to,  it  is  called 
"  Irland  et  Goda."  This  has  generally  been  regarded  as  a 
copyist's  error;  but  that  it  was  due  to  misreading  of  an 
indistinctly  written  "Vinland "  is  not  likely;  it  might  rather 
be  due  to  a  careless  repetition,  since  "  Irland  et  Mikla "  is 
mentioned  just  before.  This  is  most  probable.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  supposed  that  it  is  not  an  error,  and  that  just  as  the 
latter  is  an  alternative  narhe  for  Hvitramanna-land,  so  "  Irland 
368 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

et  GoSa  "  may  be  a  corresponding  alternative  name  for  Wine- 
land,  which  was  situated  near  it.  We  should  thus  again  be  led 
to  Ireland  as  the  home  of  the  name.  In  any  case,  the  uncer- 
tainty which  prevails  in  the  versions  of  the  name  of  Wineland 
given  in  the  oldest  authorities  is  striking  (as  discussed  in  the 
last  note).  Nothing  of  the  same  sort  occurs  in  the  transmission 
of  other  geographical  names,  and  a  form  such  as  Vindland  in 
Hauk's  "  Landnama  "  cannot  be  explained  as  merely  a  copyist's 
error.  Again,  Eric's  Saga  in  the  Hauksbok  has  the  name  cor- 
rectly, although  this  saga  as  well  as  the  "  Landnama  "  was  to  a 
great  extent  copied  by  Hauk  Erlendsson  himself.  This  may 
point  to  the  form  "  Vindland  "  having  occurred  in  the  original 
from  which  the  "  Landnama  "  was  copied.  This  discloses  uncer- 
tainty in  the  very  reading  of  the  name,  and  it  seems  also  to 
point  to  its  having  been  a  mythical  country  and  not  the  name  of 
a  known  land  that  had  been  discovered. 

To  any  one  who  is  familiar  with  Norse  place-names,  the 
addition  "  hit  goSa "  to  Wineland  must  appear  foreign  and 
unusual.  It  is  otherwise  only  known  in  the  northern  countries 
from  the  name  "  Landegode "  (originally  "  Landit  GotSa ") 
on  the  coast  of  Norway,  for  an  island  west  of  Bodo.  The 
same  name  was  also  used  (and  is  still  used  in  Stad  and 
Hero)  for  Svinoi,  a  little  island  off  Sunnmor,  and  for 
Jomfruland  (south  of  Langesund).  It  has  been  generally 
taken     for     a     so-called     tabu-name ;  ^     but     the     explanation 

1  Cf.  Peder  Clausson  Friis,  Storm's  edition,  1881,  p.  258;  A.  Helland,  Nord- 
lands  Amt,  1907,  L  p.  59,  ii.  pp.  4G7  f.  Yngvar  Nielsen  (1905)  has  remarked  the 
resemblance  between  the  epithet  "  hit  G6(^a,"  applied  to  Wineland,  and  the 
name  "Landegode"  in  Norway;  but  following  Peder  Clausson  he  regards  this 
as  a  tabu-name.  K.  Rygh  [Norske  Gaardnavne,  xvi.  Nordl.  Amt,  1905,  p.  201] 
thinks  that  P.  Clausson's  explanation  of  the  name  of  Jomfruland  is  right  in  all 
three  cases,  that  "  Norwegian  seamen  '  from  some  superstition  and  fear '  did 
not  call  it  by  the  name  of  Jomfruland,  which  was  already  common  at  that 
time,  while  under  sail,  until  they  had  passed  it."  "  It  is,  or  at  any  rate  has 
been,  a  common  superstition  among  sailors  and  fishermen  that  various  things 
were  not  to  be  called  by  their  usual  names  while  they  were  at  sea,  presumably 
a  relic  of  heathen  belief  in  evil  spirits,  whose  power  it  was  hoped  to  avoid  by 
not  calling  their  attention  by  mentioning  themselves  or  objects  with  which 
their  evil  designs  were  connected,  while  it  was  hoped  to  be  able  to  conciliate 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

suggested  to  me  by  Moltke  Moe  seems  more  probable,  that  it 
was  a  designation  of  fairy  lands,  which  lay  out  in  the  ocean, 
and  which  were  thought  to  sink  into  the  sea  as  one  approached 
them.  The  above-mentioned  Norwegian  islands  would  quite 
answer  to  such  conceptions,  especially  when  they  loom  up 
and  seem  larger,  and  all  three  islands  were  formerly  fairy 
lands  ("huldrelande ").  The  original  germ  of  the  belief 
in  fairies  ("  huldrer ")  is  the  worship  of  the  departed. 
"  Hulder "  means  "hidden"  (i.e.  the  hidden  people). 
Fairy-lands  are  therefore  the  islands  of  the  hidden,  or  of  the 
departed,  and  these  again  are  the  Fortunate  Isles,  or  the 
Isles  of  the  Blest.  A  parallel  to  this  is  that  "  Hades "  in 
Greek  means  the  invisible.  And,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  356), 
the  nymph  Calypso  (=  the  hidden  one)  answers  to 
"  hulder."  When  Bran,  in  the  Irish  legend  alluded  to, 
meets  on  the  sea  Manannan  mac  Lir  (i.e.  son  of  the  Sea), 
king  of  the  sea-people,  lord  of  the  land  of  the  dead,  he  tells 
Bran  that  without  being  able  to  see  it  he  is  sailing  over 
Mag  Mell  (the  happy  plain),  where  happy  people  are  sitting 
drinking  wine,  and  where  there  is  a  splendid  forest  with 
vines,  etc. ;  and  the  Irish  happy  land  "  Tir  fo-Thuin "  is, 
as  we  have  said  (p.  358),  the  land  under  the  wave.  The 
lands  or  islands  of  the  departed  in  course  of  time  became 
the  habitations  of  the  invisible  ones  (spirits),  of  those  who 
possess  more  than  human  wisdom,  and  have  a  specially 
favorable  lot;  by  this  means  the  idea  of  a  fortunate 
land  with  favored  conditions,  far  surpassing  the  ordinary 
lot  of  men,  became  more  and  more  emphasized.  This  de- 
velopment may  be  followed  both  with  regard  to  classical  ideas 

them  by  using  flattering  names  instead  of  the  proper  ones.  The  three  islands 
are  all  so  situated  in  the  fairway  that  they  must  have  been  unusually  danger- 
ous for  coasting  traffic  in  former  times."  Hans  Strom  in  his  description  of 
Sondmor  [Soro,  1766,  ii.  p.  441]  thought,  however,  that  "  Landegod  "  in  Sunn- 
mor  was  so  called  because  it  was  the  first  land  one  made  after  passing  Stad; 
and  "  Svino  "  he  thought  was  so  called  because  pigs  were  turned  out  there  to 
feed,  especially  in  former  times  (see  below,  p.  378);  he  gives  in  addition  the 
name  Storskjaer  for  the  island. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

of  the   Fortunate   Islands   and   to   Norse   conceptions   of  fairy- 
lands. 

That  the  Greeks  connected  the  happy  land  with  the  hidden 
people  who  move  upon  the  sea  may  perhaps  be  concluded 
even  from  the  "  Odyssey's  "  description  of  the  Phaeacians,  who 
dwelt  in  the  happy  land,  the  glorious  Scheria,  far  in  the 
western  ocean  (see  above,  p.  347).  That  they  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  fairies  (huldrefolk)  appears  perhaps  from 
the  name  itself,  which  may  come  from  Qai6<:  (^  dark)  and 
mean  "dark  man,"  "the  hidden  man"  [cf.  Welcker,  1833, 
p.  231].'  They  sail  at  night,  always  shrouded  in  clouds  and 
darkness,  in  boats  as  swift  "  as  wings  and  the  thoughts  of 
men"  [Od.  vii.  35,  f.].  The  "huldrefolk"  also  travel  by 
night  (cf.  p.  378).  In  Ireland  and  in  Iceland  the  way  to 
fairy  land  is  through  darkness  and  mist,  or  sea  or  water 
[cf.  Grondal,  1863,  pp.  25,  38] ;  and  it  is  the  same  in  Nord- 
land.  A  blending  of  the  fairies  ("  sid  "-people)  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  happy  land  or  promised  land  is  particularly 
observable  in  the  Irish  legends  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  pp.  276,  f.]. 
The  people  of  the  "  sid "  dwell  partly  in  grave-mounds  (and 
are  thus  like  "  haugebonde,"  or  mound-elf),  they  may 
also  live  in  happy  lands  far  west  in  the  sea  or  under  the 
sea,  and  are  thus  sea-elves,  but  on  the  whole  they  most 
resemble  the  "  huldrefolk."  The  "  sid  "-woman  entices 
men  like  the  "  hulder " ;  in  the  tale  of  "  Condla  Ruad " 
("  Connla  the  Fair ") ;  [cf.  Zimmer,  1889,  p.  262]  she  comes 
from  the  Land  of  the  Living  ("  Tir  na-m-Beo  "),  far  across  the 
sea,  and  entices  Connla  to  go  with  her  in  a  glass  boat  to  the 
"  Great  Strand,"  where  there  only  were  women  and  maidens. 
This  Irish  paradise  of  women  out  in  the  ocean  has,  as  we 
have  said  (p.  355),  much  in  common  with  the  German  Venus- 
berg,    and    with    the    invisible    country    of    the    "  huldrefolk." 

ly.  Berard's  explanation  [1902,  i.  p.  579]  that  Phaeacians  (  (paidAs^  )  means 
Leucadians,  the  white  people,  and  comes  from  the  Semitic  "  Beakim "  (from 
"  b.e.q."  "  to  be  white  ")  does  not  seem  convincing.  Prof.  A.  Torp  finds  the 
explanation  given  above  more  probable. 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

But  the  "  huldrefolk  "  dwell  now  in  mountains  and  woods,  now 
on  islands  in  the  sea  or  under  the  sea.  As  will  be  seen,  the  ideas 
of  the  Fortunate  Isles  or  of  the  Promised  Land  and  those  of  fairy- 
land thus  often  coincide.  It  may  be  added  that  among  many 
peoples  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  carried  across  the  sea  in  a  boat 
or  ship  to  a  land  in  the  west. 

This  is  evidently  connected  with  the  river  of  death,  Styx,  Acheron,  or  Cocy- 
tus,  of  the  Greeks,  over  which  Charon  ferried  the  souls  to  the  lower  regions  in 
a  narrow  two-oared  boat.  Procopius  [De  bello  Goth.,  iv.  20]  relates  that,  ac- 
cording to  legends  he  himself  heard  from  the  natives,  all  the  souls  of  the  de- 
parted are  carried  every  night  at  midnight  from  the  coast  of  Germania  to  the 
island  of  Brittia  (i.e.,  Britain)  which  lies  over  against  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine 
between  Britannia  (i.e.,  Brittany)  and  Thule  (Scandinavia).  He  whose  turn 
it  is  among  the  dwellers  on  the  coast  to  be  ferryman,  hears  at  midnight  a 
knocking  at  his  door  and  a  muiBed  voice.  He  goes  down  to  the  beach,  sees 
there  an  empty,  strange  boat,  into  which  he  gets  and  begins  to  row.  He  then 
notices  that  the  boat  is  filled  so  that  the  gunwale  is  only  a  finger's  breadth 
above  the  water,  but  he  sees  nothing.  As  soon  as  he  arrives  at  the  opposite 
shore,  he  notices  that  the  boat  is  suddenly  emptied,  but  still  he  sees  no  one, 
and  only  hears  a  voice  announcing  the  names  and  rank  of  the  arrivals.  The 
invisible  souls,  who  always  move  in  silence,  answer  to  the  elves. 

In  many  ways,  the  connection  between  the  dead  and  the  sea  is  apparent. 
Balder's  body  was  laid  in  a  ship  on  which  a  pyre  was  kindled,  and  it  was  aban- 
doned to  the  currents  of  the  sea.  The  body  of  the  hero,  Scild,  in  the  lay  of 
Beowulf  was  borne  upon  a  ship,  which  was  carried  away  by  the  sea,  no  one 
knows  whither.  Flosi  in  Njal's  Saga  has  himself  carried  on  board  a  ship  and 
abandoned  to  the  sea,  and  afterwards  the  ship  is  not  heard  of  again,  etc.i 

That    the    fairy-lands    should    be    called    "  Landit    G63a " 

may  be   due   to   their   exceeding  fertility    (cf.   the   huldreland's 

waving    cornfields) ;    but    it    may    also,    as    Moltke    Moe    has 

pointed    out,    have    a    natural    connection    with    the    tendency 

the  Germanic  peoples  in  ancient  times  seem  to  have  had  of 

attaching   the   idea   of   "  good "   to   the   fairies   and   the   dead. 

In     Nordland     the     "huldrefolk"     are     called     "  godvetter " 

("  good  wights")    [cf.   I.   Aasen] ;   this   among  the   Lapps  has 

become   "  guvitter,"   "  gufihter,"   "  gufittarak,"   etc,   as  a   name 

for    supernatural    beings    underground    or    in    the    sea ;  -    the 

1  Cf.  J.  Grimm,  D.  M.,  ii.  1876,  pp.  692,  f.,  iii.,  1878,  pp.  248,  f. 

2  Cf.  J.  A.  Friis:  Ordbog  for  det  lappiske  Sprog,  Christiania,  1887,  p.  254; 
J.  Qvigstad,  1893,  p.  182;  Moltke  Moe's  communications  in  A.  Helland:  Fin- 
markens  Amt,  1905,  vol.  ii.  p.  261. 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

Swedes  in  North  Sweden  use  the  word  "  goveiter."  The 
mound-elf  (haugebonden),  Old  Norse  "  haugbui "  (the 
dweller  in  the  mound),  who  was  the  ancestor  of  the  clan,  or 
the  representative  of  the  departed  generations,  is  called  in  Nord- 
land  "  godbonden."  ^ 

The  underground  people  are  called  in  Iceland  "  Ijiiflingar,"  in  German  "  die 
guten  Leute,"  in  English-speaking  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  the  Isle  of  Man  "  the 
good  people,"  "  good  neighbors,"  or  "  the  men  of  peace."  -  In  Highland 
Gaelic  they  are  called  "  daoine  sith,"  in  Welsh  "  dynion  mad."  In  Swedish  and 
Danish  we  have  the  designation  "  nisse  god-dreng "  ("  nisse  good  boy ")  or 
"  goda-nisse,"  in  Norwegian  "  go-granne  "  ("  good  neighbor  ") ;  (in  Danish 
also  "  kaere  granne,"  "  dear  neighbor ") ;  in  German  "  Guter  (or  lieber) 
Nachbar,"  or  "  Gutgesell "  is  used  of  a  goblin;  in  Thuringia  "  Giitchen," 
"Giitel";  in  the  Netherlands  "goede  Kind,"  and  in  England  "Robin  Good- 
fellow." 

That  the  epithet  "  good "  applied  to  supernatural  beings, 
especially  underground  ones,  is  so  widely  spread  even  among 
the  Lapps,  shows  it  to  have  been  common  early  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages. 

It  is  of  minor  interest  in  this  connection  to  inquire  what  the  origin  of  the 
epithet  may  have  been.  We  might  suppose  that  it  was  the  thought  of  the  de- 
parted as  the  happy,  blest  people,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  have  been  fear; 
it  may  have  been  sought  to  conciliate  them  by  giving  them  pet-names,  for  the 
same  reason  that  thunder  is  called  in  Swedish  "  gobon "  (godbonden),  "  go- 
far,"  "gogubben,"  "  gomor,"  "goa"  (goa  gar),3  which  is  also  Norwegian. 

"  Hit  goSa "  is  the  altogether  good,  the  perfect,  there- 
fore the  fortunate  land.  When  the  legend  of  the  "  Insula 
Fortunatae "  and  of  the  Irish  happy  lands — one  of  which 
was  the  sunken  fairy-land  "  Tir  fo-Thuin,"  the  land  under- 
wave — reached  the  North,  it  was  quite  natural  that  the 
Northerners  should  translate  the  name  by  one  well  known  to 
them,  "  Landit  G6?Sa "  (fairy-land,  the  land  of  the  unseen) ; 
indeed,  the  name  of  Insulas  Fortunatae  could  not  well  have 
been    translated    in    any    other    way.     But    as    wine    was    so 

^  Cf.  Moltke  Moe's  communications  in  A.  Helland:  Nordlands  Amt,  1907, 
vol.  ii.  p.  430. 

"  Cf.  W.  Grimm,  Kleinere  Schriften,  i.  p.  468. 
sRietz:  Svensk  Dialekt-Lexikon,  1867. 

373 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

conspicuous  a  feature  in  the  description  of  this  southern 
land  of  myth,  both  in  Isidore  and  among  the  Irish,  and  as 
wine  more  than  any  other  feature  was  symbolical  of  the 
idea  of  happiness,  it  is  natural,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the 
Northerners  came  very  soon  to  call  this  country,  like 
Brandan's  Grape-island,  "  Vmland " ;  thus,  "  Vinland  hit 
GotSa "  may  have  arisen  by  a  combination  of  "  Vinland " 
and  "  Landit  goSa "  to  distinguish  it  from  the  native 
"  Landit  GoSa,"  the  fairy-land  of  the  Norwegians.  A  combi- 
nation of  "  hit  goSa "  with  a  proper  name  is  otherwise 
unknown,  and  thus  points  to  "  Landit  GoSa "  as  the  original 
form.^ 

Moltke  Moe  has  given  me  an  example  from  Gotland  of  a  fairy-land  having 
received  a  laudatory  name  answering  to  Wineland,  in  that  the  popular  fairy- 
land "  Sjohaj  "  or  "  Flajgland,"  out  at  sea,  is  called  Sm6rland.=  Sjohaj  is  a 
mirage  on  the  sea;  and  "Flajgland"  comes  from  "  fljuga,"  to  fly,  i.e.,  that 
which  drifts  about,  floating  land.  It  now  only  means  "  looming,"  but  it  may 
originally  have  been  fairy-land,  and  it  is  evident  that  it  is  here  described  as  par- 
ticularly fertile.  With  "  Smorland  "  may  be  compared  Norwegian  place-names 
compounded  with  "smor":  "  Smortue,"  "  Smorberg,"  "  Smorklepp."  O.  Rygh 
includes  these  among  "  Laudatory  names  .  .  .  which  accentuate  good  quali- 
ties of  the  property  or  of  the  place."  ^  Similarly  in  the  place-names  of  Shet- 
land: "  Smerrin "  (  =  "  smjor-vin,"  fat,  fertile  pasture),  "Smernadal"  (^ 
"  smjor-vinjar-dalr,"  valley  with  fat  pasture),  "  de  Smerr-meadow  "  (  =  origin- 
ally: "  smjpr-eng  "  or  "  smjpr-vin  "),  "  de  Smerwel-park  "  (probably  =  "  smjor- 
vgllr"),  "  de  Smorli"  (probably  =  "  smjor-hliS  ").  J.  Jakobsen  [1902,  p.  166] 
says  that  "  '  smer(r)  '  (Old  Norse  '  smjor '  or  '  smcer,'  Norwegian  '  smor,')  [but- 
ter] means  here  fertility,  good  pasture,  in  the  same  way  as  in  Norwegian 
names  of  which  the  first  syllable  is  '  smor.' "  With  this  may  be  compared  the 
fact  that  even  in  early  times  the  word  "  smor  "  was  used  to  denote  a  fat  land, 
as  when  Thorolf  in  the  saga  said  that  "  it  dripped  butter  from  every  blade  of 
grass  in  the  land  they  had  found "  (i.e.,  Iceland,  see  above,  p.  257,  cf.  also 
"  smjor-tisdagr  "  =  "  Fat  Tuesday,"  "  Mardi  gras  ").    That  the  fairy-lands  were 

1  It  may  also  be  worth  mentioning  that  just  as  there  is  a  Bjorno  (Bjorno 
Lighthouse)  near  Landegode,  off  Bodo,  so  is  there  mention  of  a  Bjarn-ey  near 
Markland  on  the  way  to  "  Vinland  hit  GoJia."  This  may,  of  course,  be  purely  a 
coincidence;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  some  connection. 

-  Cf.  P.  A.  Save:  Hafvets  och  Fiskarens  Sagor,  spridda  drag  ur  Gotlands 
Odlingssaga  och  Strandallmogens  Lif.  Visby,  1880. 

3  Norske  Gaardnavne.     Forord  og  Indledning.     1898,  p.  39. 

374 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

connected  with  fertility  appears  also  from  a  Northern  legend.  Nordfugloi,  to 
the  north  of  Karlsoi,  was  once  a  troll-island,  hidden  under  the  sea  and  in- 
visible to  men,  thus  a  "  huldre "  island.  But  then  certain  troll-hags  betook 
themselves  to  towing  it  to  land;  a  Lapp  hag  who  happened  to  cast  her  eye 
through  the  door-opening  saw  them  come  rowing  with  the  island,  so  that  the 
spray  dashed  over  it,  and  cried:  "Oh,  what  a  good  'food-land'  we  have  now 
got! "  And  thereupon  the  island  stopped  at  the  mouth  of  the  sea,  where  it  now 
is.'  The  fertility  of  fairy-land  is  doubtless  also  expressed  in  the  incident  of 
the  sow  that  finds  it  (see  later),  usually  having  a  litter  there.  Its  fertility  ap- 
pears again,  perhaps,  in  H.  Strom's  [1766,  p.  436]  mention  of  "  Buskholm " 
(Bush-island)  in  Hero  (Sunnmor),  which  was  inhabited  by  underground 
beings  and  protected,  therefore  wholly  overgrown  with  trees  and  bushes. 
The  Icelandic  elfland  "  is  delightful,  covered  with  beautiful  forests  and  sweet 
smelling  flowers"  [cf.  Grondal,  1863,  p.  25],  and  the  Irish  is  the  same. 

Legends  of  islands  and  countries  that  disappeared  or  moved,  like  the  fairy- 
lands, are  widely  diffused.  To  begin  wit'n,  the  Delos  (cf.  orjf.nm,  become 
visible)  of  the  Greeks  floated  about  in  the  sea  for  a  long  time,  as  described  by 
Callimachus  [v.] ;  now  the  island  was  found,  now  it  was  away  again,  until  it 
was  fixed  among  the  Cyclades.  Ireland,  which  also  at  a  very  early  time  was 
the  holy  island  (cf.  p.  38),  floated  about  in  the  sea  at  the  time  of  the  Flood. 
Lucas  Debes  [1673,  pp.  19,  f.]  relates  that  "at  various  times  a  floating  island 
is  said  to  have  been  seen"  among  the  Faroes;  but  no  one  can  reach  it.  "The 
inhabitants  also  tell  a  fable  of  Svin6e,=  how  that  in  the  beginning  it  was  a  float- 
ing island:  and  they  think  that  if  one  could  come  to  this  island,  which  is  often 
seen,  and  throw  steel  upon  it,  it  would  stand  still.  .  .  .  Many  things  are  re- 
lated of  such  floating  islands,  and  some  think  that  they  exist  in  nature."  Debes 
does  not  believe  it.  "  If  this  was  not  described  of  the  properties  of  various 
islands,  I  should  say  that  it  was  icebergs,  which  come  floating  from  Greenland: 
and  if  that  be  not  so  then  I  firmly  believe  that  it  is  phantoms  and  witchcraft 
of  the  Devil,  who,  in  himself,  is  a  thousandfold  craftsman."  Eric  Pontoppidan 
[1753.  ii-  P-  346]  defends  the  Devil  and  protests  against  this  view  of  Debes, 
that  it  is  "phantasmata  and  sorcery  of  the  Devil,"  and  says:  "  But  as,  accord- 
ing to  the  wholesome  rule,  we  ought  to  give  the  Devil  his  due,  I  think  that 
the  devil  who  in  haste  makes  floating  islands  is  none  other  than  that  Kraken, 
which  some  seamen  also  call  '  Soe-Draulen,'  that  is,  the  '  sea  troll.' " 

Of  Svinoi,  in  the  Faroes,  precisely  the  same  legend  exists  as  of  similar 
islands  in  Norway  (see  p.  378),  that  they  came  "  up,"  or  became  visible,  through 
a  sow  upon  which  steel  had  been  bound  [cf.  Hammershaimb,  1891,  p.  362]. 

In  many  places  there  are  such  disappearing  islands.  Honorius  Augustodun- 
ensis  makes  some  remarkable  statements  in  his  work  "  De  imagine  mundi  "  [i. 
36],  of  about  1 125.     After  mentioning  the  Balearic  Isles  and  the  Gorgades,  he 


1  O.  Nicolayssen:  Fra  Nordlands  Fortid.     Christiania,  1889,  pp.  30    f. 
-  Remark  that  thus,  in  the  Faroes,  Svinoi  is  also  a  fairy  island,  as  in  Sunn- 
mor and  at  Bronoi  in  Norway. 

375 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

says:  "By  the  side  of  them  [lie]  the  Hesperides,  so  called  from  the  town  of 
Hesperia.  There  is  abundance  of  sheep  with  white  wool,  which  is  excellent 
for  dyeing  purple.  Therefore  the  legend  says  that  these  islands  have  golden 
apples  [mala].  For  '  miclon '  [error  for  '  malon ']  means  sheep  in  Greek.i 
To  these  islands  belonged  the  great  island  which  according  to  the  tale  of  Plato 
sank  with  its  inhabitants,  and  which  exceeded  Africa  and  Europe  in  extent, 
where  the  curdled  sea  [Concretum  Mare]  now  is.  .  .  .  There  lies  also  in 
the  Ocean  an  island  which  is  called  '  the  Lost '  [Perdita] ;  in  charm  and  all 
kinds  of  fertility  it  far  surpasses  every  other  land,  but  it  is  unknown  to  men. 
Now  and  again  it  may  be  found  by  chance;  but  if  one  seeks  for  it,  it  cannot  be 
found,  and  therefore  it  is  called  '  the  Lost.'  Men  say  that  it  was  this  island 
that  Brandanus  came  to."  It  is  of  special  interest  that  thus  as  early  as  that 
time  a  disappearing  island  occurred  near  the  Fortunate  Isles. 

Columbus  says  in  his  diary  that  the  inhabitants  of  Ferro  and  Gomera 
(Canary  Isles)  assert  that  every  year  they  see  land  to  the  west.  Afterwards 
expeditions  were  even  sent  out  to  search  for  it.  The  Dutchman  Van  Lin- 
schoten  speaks,  in  1589,  of  this  beautiful  lost  land  under  the  name  of  "San 
Borondon "  (St.  Brandan),  a  hundred  leagues  to  the  west  of  the  Canaries. 
Its  inhabitants  are  said  to  be  Christians,  but  it  is  not  known  of  what  nation 
they  are,  or  what  language  they  speak;  =  the  Spaniards  of  the  Canaries  have 
made  many  vain  attempts  to  find  it.  The  same  island,  which  sometimes  shows 
itself  near  the  Canaries,  but  withdraws  when  one  tries  to  approach  it,  still 
lives  in  Spanish  folk-lore  under  the  name  of  "  San  Morondon."  ^ 

On  the  coast  of  the  English  Channel  sailors  have  stories  of  floating  islands, 
which  many  of  them  have  seen  with  their  own  eyes.  They  always  fly  before 
ships,  and  one  can  never  land  there.  They  are  drawn  along  by  the  Devil,  who 
compels  the  souls  of  drowned  men  who  have  deserved  Hell  and  are  damned,  to 
stay  there  till  the  day  of  Judgment.     On  some  of  them  the  roar  of  a  terrible 


'  This  astonishing  etymological  explanation  of  the  ancient  Phoenician  legen- 
dary islands  of  the  Hesperides  is  evidently  due  to  a  confusion  of  Brandan's 
sheep-island  with  Pliny's  statements  [Nat.  Hist.,  vi.  36]  about  the  purple 
islands  off  Africa  (near  the  Hesperides)  which  King  Juba  was  said  to  have  dis- 
covered, and  where  he  learned  dyeing  with  Gaetulian  purple.  The  idea  that  the 
sunken  land,  Atlantis,  was  where  the  "  Concretum  Mare  "  now  is,  may  be  con- 
nected with  the  Greek  myth  which  appears  in  Plutarch  (see  above,  pp.  156 
and  182),  of  Cronos  lying  imprisoned  in  sleep  on  an  island  in  the  north-west 
in  the  Cronian  Sea  (  =  "  Mare  Concretum  "),  where  also  the  great  continent 
was,  and  where  the  sea  was  heavy  and  thick. 

=  This  is  the  same  myth  as  that  of  Hvitramanna-land  in  the  Eyrbyggja 
Saga;  see  later. 

3  Cf.  A.  Guichot  y  Sierra,  1884,  i.  p.  296;  Dumont  d'Urville:  Voyage  autour 
du  monde,  i.  p.  27.  The  same  idea  that  the  island  withdraws  when  one  tries 
to  approach  it  appears  also  in  Lucian's  description  (in  the  "  Vera  Historia  ")  of 
the  Isle  of  Dreams. 

376 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

beast  is  heard;  and  sailors  look  upon  the  meeting  with  such  an  island  as  a 
sinister  warning.^ 

Curiously  enough,  there  is  said  to  be  a  myth  of  "  a  floating  island  "  among 
the  Iroquois  Indians.  In  their  mythology  the  earth  is  due  to  the  Indian  ruler 
of  a  great  island  which  floats  in  space,  and  where  there  is  eternal  peace.  In 
its  abundance  there  are  no  burdens  to  bear,  in  its  fertility  all  want  is  forever 
precluded.  Death  never  comes  to  its  eternal  quietude — and  no  desire,  no  sor- 
row, no  pain  disturbs  its  peace.-  These  ideas  remind  one  strikingly  of  the 
Isles  of  the  Blest,  and  are  probably  derived  from  European  influence  in  recent 
times.  Again,  among  American  Indians,  there  is  found  a  myth  of  an  enchanted 
green  land  out  in  the  sea  to  the  east;  it  flies  when  one  approaches,  and  no 
white  man  can  reach  this  island,  which  is  called  "  the  island  that  flies."  An 
Indian,  the  last  of  his  tribe,  saw  it  a  few  times  before  his  death,  and  set  out 
in  his  canoe  to  row,  as  he  said,  to  the  isle  of  happy  spirits.  He  disappeared 
in  a  storm,  the  like  of  which  had  never  been  known,  and  after  this  the  en- 
chanted island  was  never  seen  again  [cf.  Sebillot,  1886,  p.  349]. 

Even  the  Chinese  have  legends  of  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  which  lie  700 
miles  from  the  Celestial  Kingdom  out  in  the  Yellow  Sea,  and  gleam  in  ever- 
lasting beauty,  everlasting  spring,  and  everlasting  gladness.  The  wizard  Sun- 
Tshe  is  said  once  to  have  extorted  from  a  good  spirit  the  secret  of  their  situ- 
ation, and  revealed  the  great  mystery  to  the  Emperor  Tshe-Huan-Ti  (219 
B.C.).  Then  the  noblest  youths  and  the  most  beautiful  maidens  of  the  Celes- 
tial Kingdom  set  out  to  search  for  Paradise,  and  lo!  it  suddenly  rose  above 
the  distant  horizon,  wrapped  in  roseate  glow.  But  a  terrible  storm  drove  the 
longing  voyagers  away  with  cruel  violence,  and  since  then  no  human  eye  has 
seen  the  Isles  of  the  Blest  [after  Paul  d'Enjoy,  in  "La  Revue"] .3 

This  is  the  same  conception  of  the  floating  mirage  that  we  meet  with  again 
in  the  Norse  term  "Villuland"  (from  "  villa "  ^  illusion,  mirage,  glamour), 
which  is  found,  for  instance,  in  Bjorn  Jonsson  of  Skardsa  applied  to  the  fabu- 
lous country  of  Frisland  (south  of  Iceland) ;  it  is  called  in  one  MS.  "  Villi-Skot- 
land,"  which  is  probably  the  mythical  "  Irland  it  Mikla  "  (Great  Ireland),  since 
the  Irish  were  called  Scots.  Are  Marsson,  according  to  the  "  Landnama," 
reached  this  "  Villuland  "  and  stayed  there.  It  is  remarkable  that  his  mother 
Katla,  according  to  the  Icelandic  legend  in  the  poem  "  Kgtlu-draumr  "  (Katla's 
dream),  was  stolen  by  an  elf-man,  who  kept  her  for  four  nights.*  It  may  be 
this  circumstance  that  led  to  its  being  Are  who  found  the  elf-country  to  the 
west  of  Ireland,  although  it  is  true  that  according  to  the  "  Kgtlu-draumr  "  it 

1  Cf.  P.  Sebillot,  1886,  p.  348. 

2  Cf.  Harriet  Maxwell  Converse:  Iroquois  Myths  and  Legends.  Education 
Department  Bulletin,  No.  437,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  December  1908,  pp.  31,  f. 

^  My  attention  has  been  drawn  to  this  by  Mr.  Gunnar  Olsen.  Similar 
myths  are  found  in  Japan  [cf.  D.  Brauns,  Japanische  Marchen  und  Sagen, 
1885,  pp.  146,  ff.]. 

■•  Gronl.  hist.  Mind.,  i.  pp.  144,  f.,  157,  f. 

377 


IN   NORTHERN    MISTS 

was  his  one-year-old  brother  Kar,  who  was  the  offspring  of  the  four  nights; 
but  the  elf-man  had  asked  that  his  son  should  be  called  Are. 

There  are  many  fairy-lands  along  the  coast  of  Norway,  which  used  to 
rise  up  from  the  sea  at  night,  but  sank  in  the  daytime.^  If  one  could  bring  fire 
or  steel  upon  them,  then  the  spell  was  broken  and  they  remained  up;  but  the 
huldre  folk  avenged  themselves  on  the  person  who  did  this,  and  he  was  turned 
to  stone;  therefore,  it  was  usually  accomplished  by  domestic  animals  which 
swam  across  to  these  islands.  Many  of  them  have  come  up  in  this  way,  and 
for  this  reason  they  frequently  bear  the  names  of  animals.  The  most  probable 
explanation  is  doubtless  that  they  were  originally  given  the  names  of  animals 
from  a  similarity  in  shape,  or  some  other  reason;  and  the  myth  is  a  later  inter- 
pretation of  the  name.  It  was  often  a  pig,  preferably  a  sow,  that  had  acquired 
the  habit  of  swimming  over  to  the  fairy-land,  and  it  frequently  had  litters 
there;  the  people  of  the  farm,  who  noticed  that  it  occasionally  stayed  away, 
bound  steel  upon  it,  and  the  island  was  hindered  from  sinking;  "  therefore  such 
fairy  islands  are  often  called  Svinbi."  In  this  way  Svinoi  in  Bronoi  (in  Nord- 
land,  Norway)  came  up,  as  well  as  Svinoi  in  the  Faroes,  and  doubtless  it  was 
the  same  with  Svinoi,  or  Landegode,  in  Sunnmor.  It  was  also  through  a  sow 
that  Tautra,  in  Trondhjemsfjord,  was  raised,  besides  Jomfruland,  and  the 
north-western  part  of  Andoi  (in  Vesteralen).  Nay,  even  5land  in  Limfjord 
(Jutland)  became  visible  through  a  sow  with  a  steel  bound  on  it,  which  had  a 
litter.  Other  islands,  like  Vega  and  Solen,  were  raised  by  a  horse  or  an  ox, 
etc.  Gotland  was  also  a  fairy-land,  but  it  stayed  up  through  a  man  bringing  fire 
to  it.2  Some  fairy  islands  lie  so  far  out  at  sea  that  no  domestic  animal  has 
been  able  to  swim  over  to  them,  and  therefore  they  have  not  yet  come  up; 
such  are  Utrost,  west  of  Lofoten;  Sandflesa,  west  of  Trsenen;  Utvega,  west  of 
Vega;  Hillerei-6i,  and  Ytter-Sklinna,  in  Nordre  Trondhjems  Amt,  and  hidden 
fairy-lands  off  Utsire,  off  Lister,  and  to  the  south-west  of  Jomfruland.^ 

It  is  interesting  that  the  notion  of  a  sow  being  the  cause  of  people  coming 
into  possession  of  fertile  islands  can  also  be  illustrated  from  mediaeval  Eng- 
land. William  of  Malmesbury  relates  in  his  "  De  antiquitate  Glastoniensis 
ecclesiae"  [cap.  i  and  2],  which  belongs  to  the  twelfth  century,  before  1143, 
that  Glasteing  ".  .  .  went  in  search  of  his  sow  as  far  as  Wellis,  and  followed 
her  from  Wellis  by  a  difficult  and  boggy  path,  that  is  called  '  Sugewege,'  that 


1  This  belongs  to  the  same  cycle  of  ideas  as  that  of  the  dead  rising  from 
their  graves  or  from  the  lower  regions  at  night,  but  being  obliged  to  go  down 
again  at  dawn,  or  of  trolls  having  to  conceal  themselves  before  the  sun  rises. 
In  the  same  way,  too,  the  fallen  Helge  Hundingsbane  comes  to  Sigrun  and 
sleeps  with  her  in  the  mound;  but  when  the  flush  of  day  comes  he  has  to  ride 
back  to  the  west  of  Vindhjelms  bridge,  before  Salgovne  awakes.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  above  (p.  371),  that  the  Phaacians  of  the  "  Odyssey"  sail  at  night. 

"  According  to  the  "  Guta-saga  "  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

3  Cf.  Moltke  Moe's  communications  in  A.  Helland,  Nordlands  Amt,  1907, 
ii.  pp.  512  f.  In  Brinck's  "  Descriptio  Loufodiae  "  [1676,  p.  11]  it  is  stated  that 
the  mythical  land  of  Utrost  in  Nordland  was  called  "  Huldeland." 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

is  to  say,  'the  sow's  way';  at  last  he  found  her  occupied  in  suckling  her  young 
beneath  the  apple  tree  beside  the  church  of  which  we  are  speaking;  from  this 
are  derived  the  names  that  have  come  down  to  our  time,  that  the  apples  of  this 
tree  are  called  '  ealdcyrcenes  epple,'  that  is  to  say,  '  the  apples  of  the  old 
church,'  and  the  sow  '  ealdcyrce  suge.'  While  other  sows  have  four  feet,  this 
one,  strangely  enough,  has  eight.  This  Glasteing,  then,  v;ho  came  to  this 
island  and  saw  that  it  was  flovTing  with  all  good  things,  brought  all  his  family 
and  established  himself  there  and  dwelt  there  all  his  life.  This  place  is  said 
to  be  populated  from  his  offspring  and  the  race  that  sprang  from  him.  This 
is  taken  from  the  ancient  writings  of  the  Britons. 

"  Of  various  names  for  this  island.  This  island,  then,  was  first  called  by 
the  Britons  '  Ynisgwtrin ';  later,  when  the  Angles  subdued  the  island,  the  name 
was  translated  into  their  language  as  '  Glastynbury '  or  '  Glasteing's  town,'  he 
of  whom  we  have  been  speaking.  The  island  also  bears  the  famous  name  of 
'  Avallonia.'  The  origin  of  this  word  is  the  following:  as  we  have  related, 
Glasteing  found  his  sow  under  an  apple  tree  by  the  old  church;  therefore  he 
called  .  .  .  the  island  in  his  language  '  Avallonia,'  that  is  '  The  isle  of 
apples '  (for  '  avalla  '  in  British  means  '  poma '  in  Latin).  ...  Or  else  the 
island  has  its  name  from  a  certain  Avalloc,  who  is  said  to  have  dwelt  here  with 
his  daughters  on  account  of  the  solitude  of  the  place."  i 

This  Somerset  sow  with  its  young  and  with  eight  legs,  like  Sleipner,  must 
be  Norse.  The  Norse  myth  of  the  sow  must  have  found  a  favorable  soil 
among  the  Celts,  as  according  to  the  ideas  of  Celtic  mythology  the  pig  was  a 
sacred  animal  in  the  religion  of  the  Druids,  specially  connected  with  Ceridwen, 
the  goddess  of  the  lower  world.  The  Celts  must  have  heard  of  the  pig  that 
by  the  help  of  steel  causes  fairy-lands  to  remain  visible;  but  regarded  this  as 
being  connected  with  the  animal's  sacred  properties.  It  cannot  have  been  an 
originally  Celtic  conception,  otherwise  we  should  meet  with  it  in  other 
Celtic  legends.  Moreover,  the  island  in  this  case  is  not  invisible,  nor  has  the 
sow  any  steel  upon  her;  these  are  features  that  have  been  lost  in  transmission. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  incident  of  the  sow  becoming  pregnant  in  the  newly 
found  land  has  been  preserved. 

In  the  ocean  to  the  west  of  Ireland  there  lay,  as  already  mentioned  (p.  354), 
many  enchanted  islands.  They  are,  in  part,  derived  from  classical  and  oriental 
myths;  but  the  native  fairies  (the  sid-people)  and  fairy-lands  have  been  in- 
troduced here  also  (p.  371).  Even  in  the  lakes  of  Ireland  there  are  hidden 
islands  marvelously  fertile  with  beautiful  flowers.-  Giraldus  Cambrensis 
(twelfth  century)  says  that  on  clear  days  an  island  appeared  to  the  west  of 
Ireland,  but  vanished  when  people  approached  it.  At  last  some  came  within 
bowshot,  and  one  of  the  sailors  shot  a  red-hot  arrow  on  to  it,  and  the  island 
then  remained  fixed.  The  happy  island  "  O'Brasil "  ("  Hy-Breasail,"  see  p. 
357)  west  of  Ireland  appears  above  the  sea  once  in  every  seventh  year — "  on  the 
edge  of  the  azure  sea.  .  .  ."  and  it  would  stay  up  if  any  one  could  cast  fire  upon  it.» 

1  Cf.  F.  Lot,  Romania,  1898,  p.  530.  Moltke  Moe  has  also  communicated 
to  me  this  curious  tale.  -  Cf.  P.  Crofton  Crooker,  1828,  ii.  p.  259  f. 

s  Cf.   Lageniensis,   1870,   pp.    114,   ff.,   294;   Joyce,   1879,  P-   408.     V.   Berard 

379 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

It  is  no  doubt  possible  that  myths  of  "  villulands "  or 
"  huldrelands "  far  away  in  the  sea  may  have  arisen  in 
various  places  independently  of  one  another;  '■  they  may 
easily  be  suggested  by  mirage  or  other  natural  phenomena, 
and  ideas  about  happiness  are  universal  among  men.  But 
through  many  of  these  myths  may  be  traced  features  so 
similar  that  we  can  discern  a  connection  with  certainty  and 
can  draw  conclusions  as  to  a  common  origin  of  the  same 
conceptions. 

That  Leif,  of  all  others,  the  discoverer  of  the  fortunate 
land,  should  have  received  the  unusual  surname  of  "  hinn 
Heppni "  (the  Lucky)  is  also  striking.  There  is  only  one 
other  man  in  the  sagas  who  is  called  thus:  "  Hogni  hinn 
Heppni,"  and  he  belongs  to  the  period  of  the  Iceland  land- 
taking,  but  is  only  mentioned  in  a  pedigree.  Just  as 
according  to  ancient  Greek  ideas  and  in  the  oldest  Irish 
legends,  it  was  only  vouchsafed  to  the  chosen  of  the  gods  or 
of  fortune  to  reach  Elysium,  or  the  isle  of  the  happy  ones, 
so  Leif,  who  according  to  tradition  was  the  apostle  of 
Christianity  in  Greenland,  must  have  been  regarded  by  the 
Christians  of  Iceland  as  the  favorite  of  God  or  of  destiny,  to 
whom  it  was  ordained  to  see  the  land  of  fortune.  It  is  just 
this  idea  of  the  chosen  of  fate  that  lies  in  the  words  "  happ  " 
and  "  heppinn."  That  the  name  has  such  an  origin  is  also 
rendered  probable  by  the  fact  that  the  saga  tellers  were 
evidently  not  clear  as  to  the  reason  of  Leif's  being  so  called, 
and  it  is  sometimes  represented  as  due  to  his  having  saved 
the  shipwrecked  crew  (cf.  pp.  270,  317),  which  is  meaningless, 
since  in  that  case  it  would  be  the  rescued,  and  not  Leif,  who 

[1902,  i.  p.  286]  explains  the  Roman  name  "  Ispania  "  (Spain)  as  coming  from 
a  Semitic  (Phoenician)  root  "  sapan  "  (  =  hide,  cover)  denoting  "  the  isle  of 
the  hidden  one,"  which  he  thinks  originally  meant  Calypso's  isle;  this  he  seeks 
to  locate  on  the  African  coast  near  Gibraltar.  The  explanation  seems  very 
doubtful;  but  if  there  be  anything  in  it,  it  is  remarkable  that  Spain,  the  land 
rich  in  silver  and  gold,  should  have  a  name  that  recalls  the  huldrelands  (lands 
of  the  hidden  ones). 

J  Cf.  E.  B.  Tylor:  Primitive  Culture,  1891,  ii.  pp.  63   f. 

380 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

were  lucky,  and,  moreover,  rescue  of  shipwrecked  sailors  must 
have  been  an  everyday  affair.  The  saga  writers  therefore  knew 
that  Leif  had  this  surname,  but  the  reason  for  it  had  in  course  of 
time  been  forgotten. 

An  interesting  parallel  to  "  Leifr  hinn  Heppni  "  has  been 
brought  to  my  notice  by  Moltke  Moe  in  the  Nordland 
"  Lykk-Anders,"  the  name  of  the  lucky  brother  who  came  to  the 
fairy-land  Sandflesa,  off  Trasnen  in  Helgeland.'  It  is  important 
that  this  epithet  of  Lucky  is  thus  only  known  in  Norway  in  con- 
nection with  fairy-land.-  That  the  underground  people,  "  huldre- 
folk,"  bring  luck,  appears  also  in  other  superstitions.^  He  who  is 
bom  with  the  cap  of  victory  (Gliickshaube,  -helm,  sigurkuU, 
holyhow),  which  often  seems  to  have  the  same  effect  as  the 
fairy  hat,  is  predestined  to  fortune  and  prosperity,  like  a  Sun- 
day child. 

Another  possible  parallel  to  the  lucky  name  is  the  monk 

Felix    (i.e.,   happy,   corresponding   to   "  heppinn ")    who    occurs 

in  widely  diffused  mediaeval  legends.     He  has  a  foretaste  of  the 

joys- of  heaven  through  hearing  a  bird  of  paradise;  he  thinks 

that  only  a  few  hours  have  passed,  from  morning  to  midday, 

while  he  is  listening  to  it  in  rapture,  though  in  reality  a  hundred 

years  have  gone  by.*     Moltke  Moe  considers  it  probable  that  in 

this  case  the  name  "  Felix  "  may  be  due  to  a  Germanic  conception 

of  the  lucky  one. 

Moltke  Moe  sees  another  parallel — a  literary  one,  to  be  sure — to  Leif  the 
Lucky  and  Lykk-Anders  in  the  Olaf  Asteson  of  the  "  Draumkvasde  "  (Dream- 

'Asbjornsen:  Huldre-Eventyr  og  Folke-Sagn,  3rd  ed.,  pp.  343,  f.;  "  Tuf te- 
folket  pa  Sandflaesen."  Cf.  also  Moltke  Moe's  note  in  A.  Helland:  Nordlands 
Amt,  i.  pp.  519,  f. 

=  The  name  of  "  Lycko-Par "  in  Sweden  for  one  who  "  has  luck "  [Th. 
Hielmqvist,  Fornamn  och  Familjenamn  med  sekundar  anvandning  i  Nysven- 
skan,  Lund,  1903,  p.  267]  has  come  from  the  Danish  "Lykke-Per,"  which  is  a 
purely  literary  production,  and  does  not  concern  us  here. 

2  In  Norway  the  "  nisse  "  brings  luck.  "  Lycko-nisse  "  in  Smaland  (Swe- 
den) is  a  "  luck-bringing  brownie.  Also  used  occasionally  of  little  friendly 
children"  [Th.  Hielmqvist,  1903,  p.  224]. 

■»  Cf.  Moltke  Moe's  communications  in  A.  Helland:  Nordlands  Amt,  1907, 
iL  pp.  596  f. 

381 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

Lay)  which  he  explains  as  "  Astsonr"  =  the  son  of  love,  God's  beloved  son. 
He  is  so  called  because  he  is  so  beloved  that  God  has  given  him  a  glimpse  of 
the  future,  so  that  he  sees  behind  the  gate  of  death.^ 

All  this,  therefore,  points  in  the  same  direction. 

Even  Adam  of  Bremen's  brief  mention  of  Wineland 
(cf.  pp.  195,  197)  bears  evident  traces  of  being  untrust- 
worthy; thus,  he  says  that  the  self-grown  vines  in  Wineland 
"  give  the  noblest  wine."  Even  if  wine  could  be  produced  from 
the  small  wild  grapes,  it  would  scarcely  be  noble,  and  who 
should  have  made  it?  It  is  not  very  likely  that  the  Icelanders 
and  Greenlanders  who  discovered  the  country  had  any  idea  of 
making  wine.  If  we  except  this  fable  of  the  wine,  and  the  name 
itself,  which  seems  to  be  derived  from  Ireland  (cf.  p.  366),  but 
may  have  been  confused  with  the  name  of  Finland  -  (cf.  p. 
198),  then  Adam's  statements  about  Wineland  correspond 
entirely  to  Isidore's  description  of  the  Insulse  Fortunatae,  and 
contain  nothing  new.  Adam's  statement  that  the  island  was 
discovered  by  many  ("  multis  ")  does  not  agree  with  the  Saga 
of  Eric  the  Red,  which  only  knows  of  two  voyages  thither,  but 
agrees  better  with  its  being  a  well-known  mythical  country,  to 
which  many  mythical  voyages  had  been  made,  or  with  its  being 
Finmark.-  Although  it  may  be  uncertain  whether  Adam 
thought  the  ice-  and  mist-filled  sea  lay  beyond  Wineland 
(cf.  p.  199),  this  bears  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  similar 
Arab  myths  of  islands  that  lay  near  the  "  Dark  Sea  "  in  the 
west  (cf.  chapter  xiii.)  ;  while,  in  any  case,  it  shows  how  myth 
is  introduced  into  his  description  of  distant  regions,  and  there 
also  he  places  the  mythical  abyss  of  the  sea.  If  one  reads 
through  the  conclusion  of  his  account  (pp.  192  f.),  it  will 
be  seen  how  he  takes  pains  to  get  a  gradual  increase  of  the 

1  Conceptions    of    a    somewhat    similar   nature    appear    in    the    legends    of 
Arthur,  where  only  the  pure,  or  innocent,  are  permitted  to  see  the  Holy  Grail. 

=  The  names  Finmark  (the  land  of  the  Finns  or  Lapps)  and  Finland  were 
often  confused  in  the  Middle  Ages  [cf.  Geographia  Universalis,  Eulogium, 
Polychronicon,  Edrisi],  and  the  latter  again  with  Wineland  [cf.  Ordericus 
Vitalis,  Polychronicon].  It  should  be  remarked  that  Adam  does  not  know 
the  name  "Finn,"  but  only  "Finnedi"  and  "  Scritefini." 
3S2 


WINELAND   THE   GOOD 

fabulous:  first,  Iceland  with  the  black,  inflammable  ice  and 
the  "  simple,"  communistic  inhabitants ;  then,  opposite  to 
the  mountains  of  Svedia,  Greenland,  with  predatory  inhabi- 
tants who  turn  blue-green  in  the  face  from  the  sea-water; 
then,  Halagland,  which  is  made  into  an  island  in  the  ocean, 
and  which  is  called  holy  on  account  of  the  midnight  sun,  of 
which  he  gives  erroneous  information  taken  from  older 
authors  (cf.  p.  194,  note  2)  ;  then  Wineland  (the  Fortunate  Isles), 
with  Isidore's  self-grown  vines  and  unsown  corn;  and  then 
finally  he  reaches  the  highest  pitch  (unless  in  Harold's 
voyage  to  the  abyss  of  the  sea)  in  the  tale  of  the  Frisian 
noblemen's  voyage  to  the  North  Pole,  which  does  not  contain 
a  feature  that  is  not  borrowed  from  fables  and  myths  (cf. 
chapter  xii.) ;  now  this  expedition  started  from  Bremen, 
where  he  lived;  and  he  mentions  two  archbishops  as  his 
authorities  for  it.  When  we  find  that  all  these  statements 
about  the  northern  islands  and  countries,  both  before  and 
after  the  mention  of  Wineland,  are  more  or  less  fables  or 
plagiarisms,  when  we  further  see  what  he  was  capable  of  relat- 
ing about  countries  that  lay  nearer,  and  about  which  he 
might  easily  have  obtained  information — for  instance,  his 
Land  of  Women  on  the  Baltic,  to  which  he  transfers  the 
Amazons  and  Cjmocephali  of  the  Greeks  (cf.  p.  187),  and  his 
Wizzi,  or  Albanians,  or  Alanians  (sic)  with  battle-array  of 
dogs  (!)  in  Russia  [iv.  19]' — is  it  credible  that  what  he  says 
about  the  most  distant  country,  Wineland,  should  form  the 
only  exception  in  this  concatenation  of  fable  and  reminiscence 
and  suddenly  be  genuine  and  not  borrowed  from  Isidore,  to 
whom  it  bears  such  a  striking  resemblance?  It  must  be  more 
probable  that  he  had  heard  a  name,  Wineland,  perhaps 
confused  with  Finland,  and  in  the  belief  that  this  meant  the 

^  It  must  be  remembered  that  Kvaenland  (Woman-land),  like  Norway  and 
"the  island  of  Halagland"  (!),  were  neighboring  countries  to  Sweden,  where 
King  Svein  had  lived  for  twelve  years,  the  same  who  is  supposed  to  have  told 
Adam  so  much  about  the  countries  of  the  North;  and  between  Sweden  and 
Russia  (Gardarike)  there  was  also  active  communication  at  that  time. 

383 


IN   NORTHERN   MISTS 

land  of  wine,  he  then,  quite  in  harmony  with  what  he  has  done 
in  other  places  (cf.  Kvsenland),  transferred  thereto  Isidore's  de- 
scription of  the  "  Insulae  Fortunatae." 

When,  therefore,  Norsemen  (like  a  Leif  Ericson)  really 
found  new  countries  in  the  west,  precisely  in  the  quarter 
where  the  mythical  "  Vinland  hit  GotSa "  (or  "  Insulas 
Fortunatae)  should  be,  according  to  Irish  legend,  this  was 
simply  a  proof  that  the  country  did  exist;  and  the  tales  and 
ideas  about  it  were  transferred  to  the  newly  discovered 
land. 


384 

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